Beethoven 250: Piano Works

Therese Malfatti 

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.

These past few weeks, which of course have been spent inside, I’ve been listening to more music! I listened to discs 12-19, listed here as they appear on the set (and in order at the ArkivMusic site). "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. All of this pieces below are  copied here under fair use principles and come from the Naxos booklet (which has much more detail) and the above website.

12
Concerto for Piano in D major, Op. 61a (the Violin Concerto transcribed for piano, 1806)
Concerto for Piano, Violin and Cello in C major, Op. 56 "Triple Concerto" (1804)

13
Concerto for Violin in D major Op. 61 (1806) )
Concerto movement for Violin in C major, WoO 5
Romance for Violin and Orchestra no 1 in G major, Op. 40 (1802)
Romance for Violin and Orchestra no 2 in F major, Op. 50 (1798?)

14
Seven Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 33 (1801-1802)
Eleven Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 119 (1820-1822)
Six Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 126 (1824)
Bagatelle for Piano in A minor, WoO 59 "Für Elise" (1808)
Bagatelle for Piano in A minor, WoO 59 "Für Elise" (1808)
Bagatelle for Piano in B flat major, WoO 60 (1818)
Bagatelle [sketches] for Piano in C major, Hess 57 (1824)
Bagatelle for Piano in C major, Hess 73 (1800)
Allegro for Piano in E flat major, Hess 74 (1800)
Klavierstück in C Major, WoO 54, “Lustig-Traurig” (1802?)

15
Klavierstück for Piano in B minor, WoO 61 (1821)
Klavierstück for Piano in B minor, WoO 61 (1821)
Allegretto quasi andante for Piano in G minor, WoO 61a (1825)
Seven Ländler for Piano, WoO 11 (1798?)
Six Ländler  for 2 Violins and Double Bass, WoO 15 (1801-1802)
Twelve German Dances for Orchestra, WoO 8 (1795)
Minuet for Piano in C major
Six Minuets for Piano, WoO 10 (1795?)
Allegretto for Piano in C major, WoO 56 (1803)
Allegretto for Piano in C minor, WoO 53 (1796-1797)
Fantasia for Piano in G minor, Op. 77 (1809)

16
Twelve German Dances for Piano, WoO 13
Twelve Contradances, WoO 14 (1802)
Six Ecossaises for Piano, WoO 83
Minuet for Piano in E flat major, WoO 82
Bagatelle for Piano in C Minor, WoO 214, Hess 69
Polonaise for Piano in C major, Op. 89 (1814)
Rondo for Piano in C major, WoO 48 (1783)
Prelude for Piano in F minor, WoO 55 (1805)
Two Preludes through 12 Major Keys for Piano/Organ, Op. 39 (1789)
Fugue for Piano in C major, Hess 64 (1795)
Rondo a capriccio for Piano in G major, Op. 129 "Rage Over a Lost Penny" (1795)
Two German Dances, Hess 67
Twelve Miniatures for Piano from the Sketchbooks: No. 9, Menuetto in D Major

17
Rondo for Piano in C major, Op. 51 no 1 (1797?)
Rondo for Piano in G major, Op. 51 no 2 (1798?)
Rondo for Piano in A major, WoO 49 (1783)
Twelve Minuets for Orchestra, WoO 7
Four Bagatelles for Piano, WoO 213
Anglaise for Piano in D major, Hess 61 (c. 1800)
Bagatelle for piano in A major, WoO 81
Waltz for Piano in E flat major, WoO 84 (1824)
Waltz for Piano in D major, WoO 85 (1825)
Menuett in F Major, WoO 217
Ecossaise for Piano in G major, WoO 23 (c. 1810)
Ecossaise for Piano in E flat major, WoO 86 (1825)
Waltz for Piano in C Minor, WoO 219
Minuet for 2 Violins, Viola and Cello in B flat major, Hess 331 [fragment] (c. 1799)
Minuet for 2 Violins, Viola and Cello in B flat major, Hess 331 [fragment] (c. 1799)
Minuet in D Minor

18
Sonata for Piano no 1 in F minor, Op. 2 no 1 (1793-1795)
Sonata for Piano no 2 in A major, Op. 2 no 2 (1794-1795)
Sonata for Piano no 3 in C major, Op. 2 no 3 (1794-1795)

19
Sonata for Piano no 4 in E flat major, Op. 7 (1796-1797)
Sonata for Piano no 5 in C minor, Op. 10 no 1 (1795-1797)
Sonata for Piano no 6 in F major, Op. 10 no 2 (1796-1797)
Sonata for Piano no 7 in D major, Op. 10 no 3 (1797-1798)

Of course, Beethoven wrote a lot of piano music! I enjoyed listening to all these pieces and waiting for a particular one to stand out, like the “Happy and sad” Klavierstück in C Major, WoO 54. So many of the shorter piano works have a great charm.

I hadn’t realized that there were two versions of Für Elise (the 1810 is apparently the most common), or that it was published posthumously, or that it had a more technical title, Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor. I just knew that I liked to play it on the piano, years ago! The identity of “Elise” isn’t known for certain, perhaps his musician friend Therese Malfatti (pictured above).

Performing the 32 piano sonatas are a goal of the greatest pianists. Today I started on Disc 20, which begins with the Appassionata Sonata. I had a moment of nostalgia for the old Karl Haas radio programs, "Adventures in Good Music," which began with the Appassionata's second movement.