BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van 1770-1827

Cinquième Sinfonie en ut mineur: C Moll ... Oeuvre 67. Partition Propriété des Editeurs. Prix 3 Thlr. [Symphony No. 5]. [Full score]

Leipsic: Breitkopf & Härtel [PN 4302], [March 1826].

Octavo. Contemporary marbled boards with dark blue paper title label to spine gilt. 1f. (recto lithographic title, verso blank), 182 pp. Music engraved.

With handstamp "Musikverein" to head of p. 85 and foot of final page.

Early cancellation in black ink of two measures on p. 108 with notes to blank lower margin (these two measures, movement III between 237/8, were established as being superfluous by Mendelssohn in 1846. Del Mar Critical Report, p. 30, Source E).

Binding very slightly worn. Minor wear; occasional small stains and minor soiling; handstamps removed from blank upper and lower margins of title, with repairs to blank verso; blank lower outer corner of first leaf reinforced.

First Edition. LvBWV I, p. 370. Hirsch IV, 308. Hoboken 2, 302. Fuld (5), p. 557. Weinhold-Dörfmuller p. 218.

The Fifth Symphony is possibly the most recognizable of all of Beethoven's symphonies. It holds universal appeal, and is one of the most popular works in the whole of symphonic literature.

"Soon after the ‘Eroica’ Symphony the Fifth Symphony was conceived, but somehow work got deflected into certain other C major and minor projects, and things did not come together until late 1807 and 1808. More than any other piece of music, the Fifth Symphony has come to typify the thematic unification, or ‘organicism’, as the 19th century viewed it, that Beethoven developed to such a high degree in these years. The famous opening motif is to be heard in almost every bar of the first movement – and, allowing for modifications, in the other movements." Joseph Kerman, Alan Tyson, Scott G. Burnham, Douglas Johnson, and William Drabkin in Grove Music Online

"After some initial resistance to its unheralded rhythmic concentration, economy of thematic material, startling innovations - the little oboe cadenza in the first movement, the addition of piccolo and double bassoon to the winds, the "spectral" effects of the double basses in the scherzo and trio, the trombones in the finale, the return of the scherzo in the finale - the Fifth Symphony came to be regarded as the quintessential Beethoven symphony, revealing new layers of meaning to each successive generation. ... Twentieth-century criticism has tended to see the Fifth as "the consummate example of symphonic logic," as the ultimate expression of Classic rationality refusing to yield to the violent tremors of impending Romanticism. Audiences have learned to identify the work with public virtues (the opening motif was a symbol of resistance to fascism during World War II)." Solomon: Beethoven, p. 205.

Item #40812

Price: $7,500.00  other currencies