Beethoven 250: Chamber Works

Miniature portrait on ivory, 1803

As I explained in the January 24, 2020 post, I purchased the Naxos collection of Beethoven's complete works, which I plan to listen to this year, leading up to Beethoven's 250th birthday on December 16.

As August ended, I made more progress, but the beginning of the semester was a busy time, so I’m just now posting about these pieces. After I listened to Beethoven’s string quartets, I listened to the remainder of his chamber works, discs 54-65. ("WoO" means "Werke ohne Opuszahl"---"Works without opus number"---and "Hess" refers to Willy Hess, a Swiss musicologist who compiled a catalogue of Beethoven's works in the 1950s.)

Disc 54 - String Quartet, Hess 32, WoO 210  

Disc 55 - String Quintets, Opp. 29 and 104  

Disc 56 - Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-4 

Disc 57 - Violin Sonatas Nos. 5, "Spring", 6 and 7, "Eroica" 

Disc 58 - Violin Sonatas Nos. 8, "Champagnersonate", 9, "Kreutzer" and 10   

Disc 59 - Dances and Marches  

Disc 60 - 3 Duets, WoO 27 / Duo for Viola and Cello, WoO 32  

Disc 61 - Septet, Op. 20 / Wind Quintet, WoO 208, Hess 19  

Disc 62 - Sextet, Opp. 71, 81b / Octet, Op. 103, "Parthia"  

Disc 63 - Preludes and Fugues, Hess 29-31 / String Quintet, Hess 40 (fragment)  

Disc 64 - Flute Sonata, Anh. 4, Hess A 11 / Serenade, Op. 25  

Disc 65 - 6 Variations on Folk Songs, Op. 105 / 10 Variations on Folk Songs, Op. 107 

If I think of it, I'll return to this post later and fill in specific pieces. But I will say here that Disc 63 contains the Great Fugue, Opus 133 that was the original conclusion for String Quartet #13 

I wrote in an earlier post: when you think of Beethoven, your mind might not go first to chamber music. But that category kind of music fills the most CDs: 31, followed by 21 for keyboard (not including the concertos), and 12 for vocal. 

Here is a quotation from a site about the composer: “Until Beethoven, chamber music was written to be played for fun and in private, by an ensemble composed usually by amateurs. Beethoven is the composer responsible for bringing chamber music to the concert hall. Even though he wrote chamber music for amateurs, such as the Septet of 1800, Beethoven’s last string quartets are very complex works which amateurs would have struggled to play. They are also seen as pushing the boundaries of acceptable harmony of that time, and are regarded as some of his most profound works. Following Beethoven in the romantic period, many other composers wrote pieces for professional chamber groups.” (https://www.all-about-beethoven.com/chambermusic.html) 

Among these pieces, that Septet stood out to me as a favorite! 

Here also are a couple of articles about the Great Fugue, which I'll soon listen to again. 

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90681740

https://www.brentanoquartet.com/notes/beethoven-grosse-fuge/