Beethoven 250: Chamber Works

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 35-41, 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.)

CD 35

Sonata for Cello and Piano no 1 in F major, Op. 5 no 1 (1796)

Sonata for Cello and Piano no 2 in G minor, Op. 5 no 2 (1796)

Sonata for Cello and Piano no 3 in A major, Op. 69 (1808-1809)

36

Sonata for Cello and Piano no 4 in C major, Op. 102 no 1  (1815)

Sonata for Cello and Piano no 5 in D major, Op. 102 no 2 (1815; Vienna, Austria

Sonata for Cello and Piano in E flat major, Op. 64 (1794)

37

Twelve Variations for Cello and Piano in G major on a theme by Handel, WoO 45 (1796)

Seven Variations for Cello and Piano on Mozart's "Bei Männern", WoO 46 (1801)

Twelve Variations for Cello and Piano in F major on "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen", Op. 66 (1796)

Sonatina for Mandolin and Piano in C minor, WoO 43a (1796)

Adagio for Piano and Mandolin in E flat major, WoO 43b (1796)

Sonatina for Mandolin and Piano in C major, WoO 44a (1796)

Andante and Variations for Mandolin and Piano in D major, WoO 44b (1796)

Twelve Variations for Violin and Piano on "Se vuol ballare", WoO 40 (1792-1793)

Rondo for Violin and Piano in G major, WoO 41 (1793-1794)

Sonata for Horn and Piano in F major, Op. 17 (1810)

38

Trio for Piano and Strings no 1 in E flat major, Op. 1 no 1 (1792)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 2 in G major, Op. 1 no 2 (1794-1795)

39

Trio for Piano and Strings no 3 in C minor, Op. 1 no 3 (1794-1795)

Trio for Piano, Clarinet/Violin and Cello no 4 in B flat major, Op. 11 (1797)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 5 in D major, Op. 70 no 1 "Ghost" (1808)

40

Trio for Piano and Strings no 6 in E flat major, Op. 70 no 2 (1808)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 7 in B flat major, Op. 97 "Archduke" (1810)

41

Allegretto for Piano and Strings in B flat major, WoO 39 (1815)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 10 in E flat major, Op. 44 "Variations on an Original Theme" (1792)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 11 in G major, Op. 121a "Kakadu Variations" (1803)

Trio for Piano and Strings no 12 in E flat major, Hess 48 (c. 1803)

Symphony no 2 in D major, Op. 36 (1801-1802)

*

Listening to all these Beethoven CDs since January, my happiest discovery so far has been the Diabelli Variations (last post) and also the Cello and Piano sonatas above. So lovely!

The variations on a Handel tune from "Judas Maccabeas" is also beautiful (disc 37), the Mozart variations on the same disc, and also the Second Symphony scored for piano (disc 41).

I did not realize that Beethoven wrote so much chamber music: 31 discs on this set of 90 discs. I think I'll order this book to learn more about this aspect of his oeuvre: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781574672039/Beethoven%27s-Chamber-Music-A-Listener%27s-Guide