BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van 1770-1827

Sonate pour le Piano-Forte für das Hammer-Klavier des Museum's für Klavier-Musik. Erste Lieferung. Verfasst und der Freyin Dorothea Ertmann geborne Graumann gewidmet ... 101tes Werk. Eigenthum des Verleger. Preis [blank].

Wien: S. A. Steiner und Comp. [PN S. et C. 2661], [ca.1817-20].

Oblong folio. Modern quarter mid-tan morocco with marbled boards, printed paper title label to upper. 1f. (recto decorative series title engraved by A. Müller, verso blank), 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-19, [i] (blank) pp. Engraved throughout.

Series title "Musée Musical Des Clavicinistes [!Clavécinistes]. Museum für Klavier-Musik. [1]tes Heft. Wien bei S. A. Steiner und Comp." within decorative border.

Indistinct contemporary annotation in manuscript to blank outer margin "[?...]18/2. 54."

Minor foxing, primarily to blank lower and outer margins; small tear to blank lower margin of p. 2.

An attractive wide-margined copy with strong impression on heavy quality paper.

First Edition, later issue, with "im Verlag bei S. A. Steiner und Comp." in imprint rather than "bei S. A. Steiner und Comp." Without printed price and with a list of agents below imprint to title and without advertisement preceding first page of music. Rare. LvBWV I, p. 640, later issue no. 2. Weinhold-Dorfmüller p. 225 and plate 8b. Hoboken 2, 120. Hirsch IV, 361. The first issue is distinguished by the printed "Musikalische Anzeige" to the recto of the first leaf of music.

“Op. 101 is among the most difficult of the sonatas, and Beethoven himself once described it as ‘hard to play’… The challenge of this work lies not only in the complex polyphony of the march and finale but in the delicate narrative sequence of the whole. Twice we pass from spheres of dream-like reflection into the vigorous musical landscapes of the march and finale. ... Few of Beethoven’s pieces exerted such a strong spell on the Romantic composers as this A major Sonata. Mendelssohn imitated it in his op. 6 Sonata; Wagner found in its opening movement the ideal of his ‘infinite melody;’ Schumann was captivated by its march-like second movement. Along with the cello sonatas op. 102 and the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, the A major Sonata marks a major transition in Beethoven’s style, pointing unmistakably to the unique synthesis achieved in words of his last decade.” Kinderman: Beethoven, p. 197.

"... spiritually Op. 27 and Op. 101 are as far apart as they are in years. In the later work all is expression, nothing mere display or technical contrivance. There are difficulties demanding brilliant playing, to be sure, and the writing has the ingenuity of the completely self-possessed master; but it is due precisely to this self-possession that Beethoven is now able to concentrate his whole creative mind on emotional expression in the most poetical terms of which music is capable. The means by which this is attained through manipulation of the composer's craft, and put into logical shape by his instinctive knowledge of how to handle and adjust form, came to him quite naturally by this time, provided that he was seized by the fever of irresistible inspiration, as in this glorious work." Blom: Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas Discussed, p. 195.

Item #40817

Price: $4,200.00  other currencies