Variations in A major on a Russian Dance by Paul Wranitzky for Piano WoO 71 (1796)
There are some two dozen sets of variations by Beethoven on themes by other composers, but a bare handful of works by others which develop a theme from Beethoven’s voluminous output. Why is that?
Let’s consider the circumstances.
Almost all of Beethoven’s variations were composed in his 20s just before or while he was trying to make a name in Vienna. Taking a theme by Mozart or Handel was a time-tested way of projecting himself in association with established favourites. But Beethoven was not fussy where he took his themes so long as he could build his own Babel tower on the original base. There’s a 15-minute set on a march by a man called Ernst Christoph Dressler, a Vienna tenor who died in 1779 when Beethoven was still in short pants. Beethoven was only 11 when he wrote the set.
Paul Wranitzky (1756-1808), whose Russian dance that Beethoven variegated is his ticket to posterity, was a Czech composer of 44 symphonies and 56 string quartets, all completely forgotten. His only footprint on history was as conductor of the world premiere of Beethoven’s first symphony.
Variations in D major on ‘Venni amore’ by Vincenzo Righini for Piano WoO 65 “Righini Variations” (1791)
Some of Beethoven’s other choices were overtly political. Who was Vincenzo Righini whose variations provided Beethoven with a publishing deal at Schott and, as the British scholar Barry Cooper argues, his first masterpiece. Righini was a Bologna singer and conductor who replaced Salieri for a few months in the Habsburg court before landing the powerful kapellmeister job at the Prussian court in Berlin. Did Beethoven think he might be a useful ally? Was Righini even aware that Beethoven was using his work? Cooper argues that the Righini Variations provided Beethoven with the framework for his concluding piano summit, the Diabelli Variations. There are several recordings of the Righini variations; the young Alfred Brendel delivers them with masterpiece reverence. The Russian Mikhail Pletnev offers a playful alternative.
No less political was his selection of themes by Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, a Viennese veteran who had been friendly with Mozart and Haydn – the set is wittily titled ‘there once was an old man’ – and Antonio Salieri, controller of court patronage. Beethoven set an insipid and utterly humourless theme from Salieri’s opera, Falstaff. Another throwback to Mozart is a pack of Variations in F major on ‘Tändeln und scherzen’ by Franz Xaver Süßmayr, the widow Mozart’s companion who was charged with the completion of Mozart’s Requiem. By the end of the 18th century Beethoven no longer bothers to doff his hat to these notables and his stream of variations on other men’s themes peters out. But the stimulus to write variations has been embedded deep in his system and will recur at vital moments in his life. In all, he wrote 60 compositions in variation form.
It remains puzzling, though, that so few great composers looked to Beethoven as a source for their own elaborations.
The first who comes to mind is Robert Schumann:
Studies in the Form of Free Variations on a Theme of Beethoven Anh. F25
This appears to have been a set of exercises to improve his own piano playing – both Clara and her father were superior pianists – but Schumann subjects an Eroica theme to quite thrilling extrapolations and the work deserves to be more widely known. It is played here by the fearless London-based Hungarian, Peter Frankl.
There is a wonderful dialogue between two Russian pianists, Takov Zak and Emil Gilels on the Variations on a Theme of Beethoven for 2 Pianos in E flat major op. 35 by the exuberant French composer Camille Saint-Saens. There’s very little Beethoven to be heard in it but the key is a Beethoven home base and the effervescence is wonderful.
Which is more than can be said of Max Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven op. 86 (Version for 2 Pianos), which descends from morose to morbid, even with such expressive interpreters as Peter Serkin and Andras Schiff. The orchestral version is no jollier, beautifully played as it might be. You get the feeling Reger knew how far he was down the evolutionary scale from Beethoven.
The Austrian composer Franz Schmidt wrote Concertante Variations on a Theme of Beethoven as a left-hand-only piano concerto for the wealthy Paul Wittgenstein, brother of the philosopher, who had lost in right arm in Russian captivity during the First World War. It is an unexpected delight. The main theme is taken from the scherzo movement of Beethoven’s Spring sonata and Schmidt develops it with a wit and levity altogether out of character with the post-War miseries of 1923. If you know Schmidt (1874-1939) only as a name in the dictionary this is an ideal entry point to a composer whom some conductors of my acquaintance consider to be among the greatest. By the first variation, you are halfway between a Vienna nightclub and a Berlin film set. Amazing that it is so little performed, with just one recording presently available.
If you’re obsessive about these things – who, me? – you may also find a set of 40 variations on a Beethoven theme by his pupil Archduke Rudolph which has never apparently been recorded, and a set f Beethoven variations by the British composer Wilfred Josephs, which Andre Previn premiered in 1970 at Carnegie Hall. Plus 10 jazz variations by the Jacques Loussier Trio on the theme of the allegretto of the seventh Symphony.
But that’s about it. Beethoven did not leave many scraps for other composers to exploit.
Sephardi heritage on original instruments.
Statement by the BSO:
For the first time in its 139-year history, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will suspend its fall season of performances at Symphony Hall….
By the end of the 2020 calendar year, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will announce whether it is able to go forward with any live performances with audience in the winter and spring months of its 2020-21 Symphony Hall season, January 7-May 1.
Given the cancellation of in-person Boston Symphony Orchestra live performances with audiences, September 16-November 28, and the continuing uncertainty around the resumption of in-person performances in the winter and spring, the BSO will be suspending all patron subscriptions for the 2020-21 season.
In other Boston news, the closure of Symphony Hall has meant the Handel and Haydn Society cancelling its conceerts. It has, however, renewed Harry Christophers for an extra season as music director.
“The decision to close Symphony Hall, while disappointing to all of us, is understandable. We in New England have seen over the past several months that, working together, we can reduce the spread of this dangerous disease,” said David Snead, President and CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society. “We are actively seeking new ways to bring performances of the utmost caliber to our audience in a safe setting. Whether that is online, or at a later date, we are committed to bring live music back to Boston.”
The Salzburg Festival opens this weekend with a scaled-down programme for socially-distanced, limited audiences.
Because many are unwilling or unable to travel due to Covid, ARTE Concert has arranged to stream a live or specially recorded performance every night of the festival on its website website.
UPDATE: We’re told the site is not accessible in the USA.
From Opera Philadelphia:
Launching in fall 2020, the Opera Philadelphia Channel will create a digital space in which artists can perform and explore, through a series of new commissions by visionary composers and dynamic performances produced for the screen. Annual subscriptions priced at $99 will be offered along with pay-per-view options for individual performances. The channel will be available for viewing on computers and mobile devices, and on TV screens via Chromecast and the Opera Philadelphia Channel app on AppleTV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV.
Repertoire: New presentations of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs and Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón; performances starring tenor Lawrence Brownlee, including Cycles of My Being by Composer in Residence Tyshawn Sorey; and new digital operatic premieres throughout the season, all filmed for the screen.
Planned production of Verdi’s Macbeth postponed to 2023; world premiere of Woman with Eyes Closed by Jennifer Higdon and Jerre Dye postponed to 2021; concert performances of Oedipus Rex postponed to 2022.
Opera Philadelphia plans to return to the Academy of Music in spring 2021 with performances of Puccini’s Tosca.
The Spanish capital has an alarming rise in Covid infections and the threat of a new lockdown.
Last night, its reopened Teatro Real ended an adventurous run of Traviata, with 50 percent capacity.
No new infections, says the theatre.
Here’s the press release:
– Between July 1 and 29, 27 performances of La traviata were performed at the Teatro Real without a trace of COVID-19 among the members of the cast, chorus, orchestra, theatre staff or audience.
– A total of 22.000 spectators saw the opera, superseding the objective of a 50% capacity in the theatre for every performance.
– The meticulous safety measures implemented by the Teatro Real were followed without incident by the compliant audience at all times.
– With the last performance on July 29, the Teatro Real has succeeded in its exciting and very complex project. The 300 members of staff have shown extraordinary commitment and have worked in close partnership with the singers (four casts), the Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real (the Chorus and Orchestra of the theatre), conductor Nicola Luisotti and stage director Leo Castaldi.
– The health safety protocol designed by the medical committee of the Teatro Real, with the participation of its “Prevención e Infraestructuras” teams, is available to any Spanish or foreign institution which requests it.
– So that Spain and the rest of the world could watch the first complete opera performed on stage after the obligatory lockdown period, La traviata was broadcast live and at no charge on MyOperaPlayer –the streaming platform of the Teatro Real- and on TVE (Spanish National Television).
– For the last two months the Teatro Real has been at work with the artistic team of Un ballo in maschera, the title to open the 2020-2021 season, so that the production can be carried out in compliance with safety rulings and by adapting the original scenography, costumes and stage direction to the new circumstances.
The Teatro Real reopens its doors to the public on September 16.
Henry-Louis de La Grange’s Médiathèque Musicale Mahler has circulated a long-rumoured photograph of Gustav Mahler being stretchered off a train on his final arrival in Vienna on May 12, 1911.
The pap shot was published in the Austrian newspaper Das Interessante Blatt on May 18, the day Mahler died.
No Mahler expert of my long acquaintance had ever seen this picture.
Northeastern is leasing the Cohen Wing of Boston’s Symphony Hall for “student dining, ‘grab ‘n go’ meal distribution, and student collaboration,” according to a letter from Northeastern administrators sent to the Boston Planning and Development Agency July 16. The university intends to use approximately 14,000 square feet of the space for a six-month period, from Aug. 15 to Feb. 14, 2021.
Northeastern Media Relations did not respond to inquiries about the exact use of this space, but the letter states that “no additional use for this space is anticipated at this time” …
In other words, with the orchestra idle all winter, they may as well rent out the hall.
Read more here.
UPDATE: The BSO would like to clarify that the Cohen Wing (251 Huntington Avenue), which is attached to Symphony Hall is a different building and has a separate address from Symphony Hall (301 Massachusetts Avenue) The use of the Cohen Wing has no impact on audiences or whether the orchestra is playing in Symphony Hall or not. Also, the current agreement, still in negotiation, is through December, with an option to extend to be decided in November.
Interlochen Online asked the teachers on its summer program what gets them out of bed. Answers from:
Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, jazzman Wynton Marsalis, violinists Nicola Benedetti and Ray Chen, composer Jennifer Higdon, pianist Jeremy Denk and Emmanuel Pahud, principal flute of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
