Beethoven EGMONT Op. 84
Beethoven to start your week, June 17, 2024
Goethe wrote the play "Egmont" in 1788. It told the story of the Duke of Egmont, a Dutch nobleman who resisted the Spanish Inquisition and was executed by the Duke of Alba.
Read moreBeethoven Opus 79 no.1 the "Ghost Trio"
Your daily Beethoven for friday June 14, 2024.
Beethoven's Opus 79 no.1 is called the "Ghost Trio" for the eerie quality of the second movement, which Beethoven marked "Largo Assai" - as slow and intense as possible.
Read moreBeethoven Mass in C Opus 86
Your Daily Beethoven for Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II, the long-time patron of Franz Josef Haydn, commissioned a new mass setting each year for his wife’s name-day. In 1807, the commission fell to Beethoven, who, in his own words, “treated the text in a manner in which it has rarely been treated”.
Read moreHorn Sonata, Opus 17
Your Daily Beethoven for Monday, June 10, 2024.
Beethoven composed his Horn Sonata, Opus 17, for the leading horn player of the day, Signor Punto.
Read moreBeethoven: Four Spanish Songs
Piano Sonata No 14 in C-sharp minor, Op 27, No 2
Your Daily Beethoven for Friday, June 7, 2024
The Opus 27 no. 2 sonata is generally known as the “Moonlight”, so named by a romantic poet (Rellstab) who wrote that the first movement made him think of a boat floating in the moonlight on Lake Lucerne. The reality is otherwise:
Beethoven's Sonata for piano four hands, Op. 6
Your Daily Beethoven for Wednesday, June 5, 2024
With an opening theme that resembles the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven's Opus 6 sonata for piano four hands is a rarely heard gem.
Read moreBeethoven: Streichquartett Es-Dur op. 74
Your Daily Beethoven for Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Beethoven's 10th string quartet was called "The Harp" by its publisher because of the delicate pizzicato phrases in the first movement.
Read moreBeethoven String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3
Your Daily Beethoven for Monday, June 3, 2024
Although Prince Andrey Razumovsky is remembered as the Russian ambassador to Vienna and patron of the arts who created the Schuppanzigh Quartet and commissioned Beethoven's second set of string quartets, things ultimately did not end well for him.
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Your Daily Beethoven for June 2, 2024
In 1819, the publisher Anton Diabelli wrote a short waltz and asked dozens of composers to each submit a variation on his original theme, with the intent of publishing all of them in a "patriotic anthology".
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