Horn Sonata (Beethoven)
The Sonata in F Major for Horn and Piano , Op. 17, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 for the horn virtuoso Giovanni Punto . Today it belongs to the standard literature for French horn .
Sentence names
The work consists of three sentences with the names:
- Allegro moderato
- Poco adagio quasi andante
- Rondo . Allegro moderato
Emergence
As Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries explains, Beethoven only put the sonata on paper one day before the performance: “He almost always postponed the composition of most of the works that Beethoven should have finished by a certain time until the last moment. So he had promised the famous horn player Ponto (!) That he would compose a sonata (Opus 17) for piano and horn and play it with him in Ponto's Concert; the concert with the sonata had been announced, but this had not yet started. Beethoven began work the day before the performance and it was finished at the concert. "
premiere
The premiere took place on April 18, 1800 in a concert given by Punto in the Kärntnertor-Theater . According to the received notice, the concert was opened with a symphony by Joseph Haydn , followed by an aria by Ferdinando Paër , a horn concerto by Punto himself, the overture La chasse du Jeune Henri by Étienne-Nicolas Méhul , a clarinet concerto by Antonio Casimir Cartellieri and another another aria by Paer. Only then, as a climax, so to speak, did the “Sonatas completely newly composed and played by Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven, accompanied by the French horn by Mr. Punto”. The decision was made appropriately by an unspecified “final symphony”.
The Viennese correspondent for the Allgemeine Musikischen Zeitung reports that the work was so popular that Punto had to play it a second time:
“The famous, and now probably the greatest French horn player in the world, Mr. Punto, (a Bohemian by birth, his real name is: Stich,) is now in Vienna. He recently gave a musical. Academy, in which above all a sonata for fortepiano and french horn, composed by Beethoven and played by him and Punto, was so distinguished and so popular that, despite the new theater regulations, which forbid the Da Capo and loud applause in the court theater, the Virtuosos were nevertheless moved by very loud applause, when it was finished, to start all over and play through again. "
Beethoven and Punto went public with the work two more times: on May 7, 1800 in Ofen , and on January 30, 1801 in Vienna as part of a charity concert in the great Redoutensaal of the Hofburg .
First edition
The first edition, published by Tranquillo Mollo , was dedicated to the composer Josephine von Braun b. von Högelmüller (1765–1838), wife of the court banker Peter Freiherr von Braun (1758–1819), who was director of both court theaters at the time. An alternative version for violoncello and piano was also published.
literature
- Ervin Major : Beethoven in Ofen in 1800 , in: Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft , Volume 8 (1925/26), pp. 482–484 ( digitized version )
- Armin Raab, Beethoven's op. 17 - Horn Sonata or Cello Sonata? , in: Neues Musikwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch , Vol. 3 (1994), pp. 103–116
- Klaus Martin Kopitz , The early Viennese performances of Beethoven's chamber music in contemporary documents (1797–1828) , in: Beethovens chamber music , ed. by Friedrich Geiger and Martina Sichardt (= Das Beethoven-Handbuch , edited by Albrecht Riethmüller , Volume 3), Laaber 2014, pp. 165–211
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz Gerhard Wegeler and Ferdinand Ries, Biographical Notes on Ludwig van Beethoven , Koblenz 1838, p. 82 (digitized version)
- ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , Vol. 2, No. 40 of July 2, 1800, Col. 704 (digitized version)
- ↑ Kopitz (2014), p. 174