In July 2023 this channel released a video ( • You've Never Heard Thi... ) which included a longer discussion of the history of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’. In response to the various comments and requests for the score and recording alone, we are now releasing a separate video without the preliminary discussion, and containing just a score and recording, plus minimal written commentary.
In 1810 Beethoven composed a short piano piece, which we now know as ‘Für Elise’. It has become (with the possible exception of the first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata) Beethoven’s most famous composition for piano, with one of the most famous melodies in the world. which is something of an irony, because Beethoven never had the piece published, and indeed the version we know today comes from a somewhat unreliable source having been transcribed in the 1860s from a manuscript that subsequently disappeared. The dedication, “Für Elise’ may itself be a misreading of a more likely dedication to Therese Malfatti, who turned down Beethoven’s proposal of marriage in 1810.
Twelve years later, in 1822, after completing his final three piano sonatas, Beethoven put together an assortment of short Bagatelles for piano, some of them newly composed, and some revisions of older pieces. He sketched out a revised version of ‘Für Elise’, embellishing some of the material, rhythmically displacing the accompaniment, and slightly altering the structure. These modifications are a fascinating glimpse at the composer’s ‘tool-shed’, as we watch Beethoven altering and improving things that he appears to have disliked in the first version. In the end, he decided not to publish this revised version and so it was not included among the Op 119 Bagatelles.
Published versions of Beethoven’s 1822 sketch differ slightly: the British musicologist, Barry Cooper published a version of the sketch in 1989, and in 2021 Bärenreiter Urtext published an excellent new edition of the Bagatelle in A minor (Für Elise) containing the original version, a printed version of Beethoven’s draft of the piece with his 1822 alterations, and a completion (from the revised draft) of the 1822 version by Mario Aschauer, which closely resembles the version performed in this video. The notated material in this video reproduces the essential elements in Beethoven’s 1822 revision. Any extra material, not found in Beethoven's original version, or in his 1822 sketch, is written in small notes in the video animation.
Beethoven: Bagatelle in A Minor ('Für Elise')
Pianist: Matthew King
The original video (from which this is an extract) is here: • You've Never Heard Thi...
Mario Achauer, who edited the recent Bärenreiter Urtext edition, can be heard playing the 1822 version on a fortepiano here: • Beethoven: Bagatelle i...
Mario Aschauer's explanation of the 1822 version and the new Bärenreiter Urtext edition can be heard here: • Bärenreiter Favourites...
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Edited by Ian Coulter ( www.iancoultermusic.com )
Produced and directed by Ian Coulter & Matthew King
#Beethoven #FürElise #themusicprofessor
17 авг 2023