Six string quartets Anhang 2

Thank you!

OrlandiArmando wrote:

Hello everyone.

I am writing again, after some time, due to wonderful news (which will not be the only sensational news of this beginning of 2014, fortunately). Inedita, as always sensitive to news and Beethovenian Rarities, will make available, in the spring of 2014, the Six Anhang 2 Quartets.

http://www.lvbeethov...Anhang2.html#A2

After 5 years since my meeting with Michel Rouch, after 4 years from the wp in Genoa, here is an enormous result. The research studies have been very long; at the bottom you can read part of the booklet I wrote; I believe that to date they are the most in-depth information on the subject since (and not AFTER) the studies of De Saint-Foix.

The latest modern information, prior to our research, regarding these quartets is due to the musicologist Giovanni Biamonti, who cites them in his 1968 catalogue (Giovanni Biamonti, catalogo cronologico e critico di tutte le opere di Beethoven, Torino, ILTE, 1968), which I quote verbatim: "They are found in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. Attributed once to Mozart, then, by De Saint Foix, to Beethoven. Authenticity very doubtful". A laconic comment for a musicologist who, having published a few years earlier a first version of said catalogue (Giovanni Biamonti, catalogo cronologico e critico di tutte le opere di Beethoven, 1781 – 1800 Roma, 1951), speaks about it very detailedly from page 33 to page 39, also indicating all their thematic incipits.

And here is the turning point: in 1923 Saint-Foix published an article in the Rivista Musicale Italiana: "Nouvelle contribution à l’étude des œuvres inconnues de la jeunesse de Beethoven".

Beethoven! Obviously, for the researcher, these four quartets are not Mozart's, but Beethoven's! They were written before 1792, that is, before Beethoven definitively left Bonn, when he was still playing the viola in the orchestra of the Electoral Chapel ...

Thanks to the knowledge of this article, and in anticipation of the centenary of Beethoven's death, Heinrich Wollheim, a member of the chamber orchestra of the Berlin Opera, produced a new edition of the quartet parts between August and September 1926. In this case as well, however, no public concert was held.

At the end of the same year, the Frenchman Prunieres Henry, director of "La Revue Musicale", requested a copy of the last two quartets from the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, and promptly submitted it to the judgment of de Saint-Foix who, once studied, reported on it in his article of April 1st, 1927: "Une nouvelle révélation de la jeunesse de Beethoven". The scholar's conclusion regarding the attribution is that, being youthful works, it is normal to find, alongside some typically Beethovenian compositional formulas, also those of Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini, Kozeluch, etc.

An example: the first movement of Anhang 2 quartet number 1 uses a theme already present in the piano quartet by the same Beethoven (WoO 36, No. 3), from 1785. However, this theme also appears very similar in another apocryphal Mozart quartet (Anhang C 20-07) ...

Since 1927, nothing more. The scores of Koster and Wollheim were lost, the copies of Prunières disappeared. During the last World War, the collections of the Berlin Library were hidden in various small locations in Germany. Not everything was recovered, but fortunately the original copies of the quartets returned to their place in 1946.

The formidable research concludes with the new millennium: the French musicologist Michel Rouch requests the original copies from the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in 2006; he prepares a private printed edition for a public concert, which was held in Genoa, at the church of San Siro di Struppa, (limited to quartets 1, 2, and 4) on May 8th, 2010, at 8:30 PM, following an in-depth examination of the score by Maestro Graziano Denini. On that occasion, the absolute first performance was entrusted to the Arconauti Quartet, with the undersigned and the aforementioned Rouch present.

The new microfilm request to the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek arrives in March 2011, through Dr. Luigi Bellofatto. The material, passed to the Inedita Record Label, is the source for the present recording edition.

Armando Orlandi

Dear Armando, first of all, thank you!

That said, I think it would be appropriate to clarify well, especially for the layperson, that these quartets are not by Beethoven and that - I don't want to irritate you but, as you know, I am always very frank - operations of the type carried out by Inedita, making them appear as such on the cover, are not very honest and are part of those commercial tricks used to deceive the consumer. And... this regardless of their quality, which I do not wish to discuss in detail|

Daniele,

you know how much I admire your delightful, uninterrupted smugness, which always distinguishes you; however,

1) Either you have the parts, or you can request them, for your own personal culture, from the Staasbibliothek in Berlin.

2) conduct a reconnaissance of the manuscript, and as a MUSICIAN and not an amateur, draw conclusions, perhaps after having worked on it for a few years, and then present them here, but not in three miserable lines. (but also not those long threats that we know and appreciate above all else in the known universe).

3) If your undoubted quality of thought is derived from reading, read the conclusions of De Saint-Foix well (but obviously, given your enormous certainty of thought, you will have already read every issue of the Rivista italiana from 1923 onwards, considering that YOU and only YOU have the truth, since De Sait-Foix is little more than a fool)

4) please teach me how to have so many certainties; in 48 years, I have lost many.

5) Please do not be drastic in your thinking when I write about public matters on the forum. It disturbs me quite a bit, you know, and you continue to do it. (I have always defended you in these matters, wrongly, evidently.

6) I don't care what you think of me, of Inedita's work, of my site, etc.... don't say it. Intellectual honesty is not lacking in those who do, but in those who judge, even without having done anything important for Art..

7) do not use, as always, the double lickspittle-and-bait system; it doesn't work with me, and I had already told you.... (your system of irritating me excessively works once again; and this stupid time you have just succeeded, well done, Daniele! you can be proud of yourself!, you managed to have your 5 minutes of glory, besides making me waste 10 minutes on this useless counter-reply (but it will be the last time, count on it))

Finally, please do not send me private or public messages of clarification or similar; in NO case will I respond to you publicly or privately, we have already had one chance, two would be too many.

The matter ends HERE.

i bid you farewell.

with all the esteem I have always had for you, certainly not changed today, yours

I'll start by saying: what I am writing now is not to get a rebuttal from Armando – who has clearly stated that he will not provide one regardless – but only to clarify my point of view, just so that whoever may read this has an objective idea about the matter.

As is well known, I cannot read sheet music and therefore it would be useless to have them sent to me; I do not know German – I barely know Italian and Bolognese – and thus this would make everything even more useless. Those who know me know that I am a person who lives in absolute doubt about everything and that to accept a "new discovery" as true, I need certain proof, otherwise I prefer to remain in that doubt.

That being said, as is known, there are appendices in the various main Beethoven catalogues – Biamonti, Kinsky, and Hess – where doubtful and spurious works have been reported.

Since these catalogues are now heavily outdated, over the years, some of these have been definitively assigned to other composers, some are now considered certainties of Beethoven, and others remain doubtful. There are also some that, considered legitimate until recently, are now considered doubtful.

As of today, the quartets in question have not yet found their place, in the sense that it is not known who truly composed them. Once Mozart is archived, Beethoven remains absolutely doubtful, so much so that various catalogues after Saint-Fox – who was not an idiot but not a deity either – have left them in the limbo of doubt.

In reality, the only certainty we have are the words of Dr. Wegeler who, as is known, was a childhood friend of Beethoven and, along with Ferdinand Ries, wrote the first post-mortem biographical notes of the composer.

Wegeler was not a charlatan like the servant Schindler was and, apart from some slips due to forgetfulness or inaccuracies, one can substantially trust what he wrote.

Wegeler reached Beethoven in 1795 in Vienna and it was at that time that this memory dates back: «(...) for an agreed amount, Count Appony commissioned a quartet from Beethoven, a genre in which, until then, he had not yet ventured. The Count declared that he did not wish to reserve the quartet for six months before publication, as was custom, nor did he demand a dedication, or anything else.

Urged by the memory of this commission which I repeatedly brought to his attention, Beethoven set to work twice. But from the first attempt emerged a great string trio (op. 3), and from the second a string quintet (op. 4).».

Also according to Wegeler, indirectly, there was a strong fear on Beethoven's part to begin venturing into the quartet genre – then the most refined genre of music – and, I would add, probably a fear of inevitably having to face his two great successors in this.

Beethoven only began to venture into them from 1798 to finish them in 1800: the 6 quartets of Opus 18. At least two of these quartets had a first and a second version, as they did not satisfy him at all. One of these, in its first version (Hess 32) – which in the second became Opus 18 No. 1 – was given to his friend Carl Amenda upon leaving Vienna for Wirben, from where he would never return. In letter no. 67 to his friend, Beethoven wrote: «(...) Do not let your quartet circulate yet because I have changed it a lot; now I only truly know how to compose quartets and you will see when you receive them.»

A final clarification, now only for you, dear Armando!

I think the very best of you and your site. You can find the proof in my blog, where in the Beethovenian work and catalogue that I am laboriously building there are constant references to your work: if I didn't think well of it, it wouldn't be so!

I have also praised this site of yours with El Musico de Bonn, defining it as the most beautiful of all the Beethovenian ones.

People like you and me work within the limits of their possibilities and knowledge – and I am certainly much more ignorant than you – to pass down Beethoven: we are his humble servants – or at least, that is how I consider myself, though I doubt he would be honored by it -.

You do this by highlighting sketches and drafts and you do a truly cyclopean and excellent job. But you must not put on airs and act like a touchy cat every time someone does not find themselves in harmony with you. I may be conceited – I cannot judge my own person – but you are extremely touchy and excessively conceited at least as much as me, even if, given your knowledge, you certainly have more right to it.

As for Inedita, I find his work very valid as well, but I distrust anyone who attempts to propagate artificial products. Let them publish everything they deem right and laudable, but every thing must be assigned its proper labeling. Otherwise, we are making fools of the consumers, and this is not"

legit! It's not good!

Annagh's 2 quartets, already attributed to Mozart and then to Beethoven to this day, do not have a certain composer: this is it! If someone finds the certain and irrefutable proof that they are by Beethoven, fine! We will have to review many things about the life and work of the composer then! But for now, they are only by an anonymous composer! So it is, if you please, and in the face of such arrogance!

I have updated my page to 1788, where I present my thoughts on the matter.

For the rest, before I truly say 'pass and close' [move on], so that I can lift this last great burden from you and you can write whatever you please at your complete discretion without anyone bothering you, I must give you a suggestion, of which you will naturally do as you wish:

Dear Armando and dear Luigi, and dear Inedita, you are excellent, but rather than wasting your time on very improbable works by Beethoven, concentrate on the drafts and sketches and make your own what Klaus Kropfinger says: «(...) Today, Beethoven research faces a double and entirely new challenge. On one hand, a complete Beethoven biography appears necessary, which, alongside recently discovered or published sources, takes into account the vast pool of reflections and analytical knowledge and, above all, the progress made in the last thirty to forty-four years in the research of sketches: a titanic task that no one has yet dared to undertake (...)». ("Beethoven" by Klaus Kropfinger, Ricordi Lim editore) Qf

This is the true challenge for future Beethoven musicology: not to continue searching for hidden meanings in works, not to find new works that are often just rubbish. But this! Good luck and goodbye!

Dear Daniele,

hello and many best wishes for a Happy New Year.

I read Armando's intervention and yours, and I understand well what is being said. Research does not depend on a single composer but is based on music to be studied, analyzed, and transcribed, and certainly I do not try to "waste time" even though I have very little available between work and family (you can well imagine with a 4-year-old and a 9-year-old!). I gladly helped our dear friend Armando obtain copies of the manuscript scores that are in Berlin, knowing the staff who work at the Library.

I like research, and it is what led me to write articles on Beethoven and biographers of Beethoven, such as Alexander Wheelock Thayer, considered the greatest, whose biography is the basis for all Beethoven biographies. My book about him took a full 10 years of research in Italy, Europe, and the USA, with all expenses borne by me, but I was happy to do it, to unearth original documents and letters, and that he then found an American publisher for publication.

One should always be grateful to those like Armando who dedicate themselves to research and to the performance of pieces never before performed, whether they are by Beethoven or other composers. You cannot imagine how much work goes into such a task.

You mention Kropfinger, whom I have known for several years; indeed, while speaking with him, one of the topics was undoubtedly a new and complete edition of a Biography of Beethoven, but it is a work that one could start, yet no one can know how or when it will end.

In this regard, I can tell you that Henle will shortly publish a new edition of the Kinsky-Halm / Dorfmüller catalogue in collaboration with the Beethoven Haus.

Daniele, I hope you do not abandon the forum and that you will continue to write, giving your thoughts and your contribution.

Bye

Luigi

After Luigi's intervention, there are a few things to clarify: first, that we receive no remuneration for this work; neither direct nor indirect. Nor have I ever received compensation for the articles written for the Inedita booklets, from which I normally receive 25 complimentary copies, which then—obviously—I give away to relatives or friends or to those who write to me via my Email. The annual cost of the two sites (www.lvbeethoven.it and www.beethoven-music.it) is 147.50 euros each, including VAT. (on the “donate” button I received the beautiful sum of 17.40 euros, which I kept in the account). Now, unlike Luigi, I have a slightly more “aged” family, with two children (16 and 19) who nonetheless break my… quite a few consecutive hours that I could dedicate to my beloved Beethoven studies. Research is my life, just as I think reading books regarding Beethoven is Daniele's life. Well, perhaps the crux of the matter is this: in reality we move in parallel fields: on one side field research, with its expenses and no income (personally, I have an annual outlay of about 2000 euros and I will tell you my… cents, which surely do not interest you, just to be precise) but which then concludes with satisfaction 4 or 5 years after starting; on the other, the remarkable culture that Daniele puts into his interventions, which are always very articulated. (they become long also because, usually, he reports the passages from which he takes the inspiration for his reflection).

Speaking of us being bunglers, Luigi omitted to write that on April 25th of this year, He, I, and Massimo Anfossi will be at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn for a conference-concert where Massimo will play none other than Beethoven's piano, namely the Graf of 1824-1826. I also hear rumors that Inedita will be present with Cristoforo Prodan, perhaps because even the BH is sensitive to Marketing initiatives…. (he – Luigi - does not write it because he is very – too – shy, but I have no hesitation of any kind nor have I ever suffered from pride). Anyway, we will open a post for this. Speaking of pride, I say without fear of contradiction, that for me any topic is valid, from “why was Für Elise called that” to reflections on Adorno's Beethovenian aesthetics (which are a great bore). No problem talking to anyone, from the novice who has just arrived to….. Daniele. Precisely to Daniele: unlike someone who attacked you with a certain fury for your way of conducting yourself, personally I have never had the pleasure of arguing with you or others; I will not comment on your two replies, but I too would be pleased if you continued to give your contribution, and I also desire that you make a sincere reflection: you cannot discredit people who not only read Kropfinger, but who host him in their homes, as Luigi has done, who do not cite the author, but who talk with him over a coffee. Let's try to understand that each of us works in our own field. I personally never invade your epistemological field, you do not invade my epistemic one. (which is equivalent to saying: when we make criticisms, and this applies to everyone, myself included, let's try to do so within the limits of formal kindness without personal malice or better yet without intentionally getting on each other's nerves; even a saint would get pissed off, and I am not one). So, the post remains as it is; if Daniele wants to give his contribution, I know many people will be happy (and if they want to write it to us and to him, all the better), if he wants to leave, so be it. If I or Daniele (or both of us) should go missing, you will just have to come to terms with it. For me, the matter truly ends here. PS: a small note regarding the sketches. The path of feasibility regarding the “reconstruction” of sketches is fraught with formal problems. Here it is about attributions of music to be revised, there it is about adding. Every sketch tells its own story. In another post, Massimo Anfossi will explain how they proceeded with the “performing edition” of the Biamonti 213 Fantasy, without reaching that work (that one indeed) of musical forgery that Willem Holsbergen did in his time.

Be well.

Thank you Armando! Thank you Luigi! And thank you to Inedita for this latest gem!

I remember that even in the old forum, some tension had arisen, from the very same source. A user confided in me that they were so hurt they stopped participating. Sometimes one must write "sorry" and self-examine. That is what the truly strong do.

In a world full of wolves and meanness, Armando Orlandi works generously and disinterestedly for the noble cause of music. Although for me Beethoven surpasses everyone, he is now commonly recognized as one of the three greatest composers, along with Bach and Mozart. The recovery of one of his works is a duty toward humanity. Any piece, however brief, that is likely to be by Beethoven deserves to be made listenable, performed, and distributed (via internet or, I hope, recorded). In some cases, it is necessary to complete or reconstruct it, and these delicate interventions can be carried out in a more or less noble manner. But in any case, it is a necessary and meritorious undertaking.

Armando should be enabled to dedicate himself to his website and his research full-time. This should be funded. An enlightened patron would be needed. And record labels like Inedita deserve our praise.

I studied violin and piano at the Conservatory, but for a short time. Furthermore, I am by no means an expert, but an enthusiast, and I have serious memory problems. I am not even considered an important or wealthy person; I am a humble employee. I only have a vast collection of Beethoven CDs and I listen to a new one almost every day. My children had the finale of the 9th symphony and the Choral Fantasy as a lullaby. Some time ago, I dedicated several years to deepening my knowledge of Beethoven's music. There is never any personal gain, and despite my smallness, Armando has liberally dedicated his time and attention to me. He is a mentor to me. I will never forget his courteous and generous willingness to guide me in this wonderful park. With him, I feel like the young Gerhard von Breuning walking with Beethoven through the streets of Vienna, receiving his attention, listening, and learning. Thank you, Armando!

For his precious research work, he deserves the gratitude of all of us.

We must also be grateful to his dear wife and his boys for allowing him to do so much, for so many.

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"In my opinion, it is not reasonable to think that the human brain, with its ability to create and appreciate music such as that of Mozart and Beethoven, is a product of evolution. It is much more logical to conclude that our mind is the work of a wise and loving Creator." - Eldar Nebolsin, internationally renowned Uzbek pianist.

"Do you recognize the Creator, world?", "Above the starry vault, a loving father must dwell".

Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, IV movement.

I echo the words of dear Luigi: "I hope you do not abandon the forum and that you will continue to write, giving your thoughts and your contribution."

As for the rest, I have already expressed myself.