Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

[Edgy 2]

I've not been to the Beethoven Museum in Bonn but I can fully recommend a visit to Probusgasse 6 in Heiligenstadt, Vienna. I last went in 2008 and I believe that it's been updated and refurbished since then.

https://www.wien.info/en/music-stage...oven-memorials

We did a Vienna city break a few years ago and I think we got lost trying to find that place Pet.
Managed to see most of of the Beethoven and other composer related sites.

[Petrushka]

We did a Vienna city break a few years ago and I think we got lost trying to find that place Pet.
Managed to see most of of the Beethoven and other composer related sites.

I took an underground train to Heiligenstadt station then walked it. I had a detailed map and I'd been before on a group trip so I didn't have a problem in locating it. I then decided on a stiff uphill walk to Grinzing cemetery to find Mahler's grave and chanced upon Leopold Nowak's grave (he of the Bruckner editions) while I was there.

[Edgy 2]

I took an underground train to Heiligenstadt station then walked it. I had a detailed map and I'd been before on a group trip so I didn't have a problem in locating it. I then decided on a stiff uphill walk to Grinzing cemetery to find Mahler's grave and chanced upon Leopold Nowak's grave (he of the Bruckner editions) while I was there.

[jayne lee wilson]

Some years ago, I visited the Beethoven museum in Bonn, where was exhibited (to the best of my recollection) one of Beethoven's pianos, made by a Britisher, was it Taylor? (I can't find confirmation of that at the moment.)

Anyway I would love to hear his music played on a contemporary instrument of that period, rather than a modern state of the art Grand.

nobody does it better.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/interpreter/olga-pashchenko/download-streaming-albums

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=olga+pashchenko&i=popular&rh=n%3A229816&dc&qid=1580263272&ref=sr_ex_n_1

[Quarky]

nobody does it better.....

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/interpreter/olga-pashchenko/download-streaming-albums

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=olga+pa...&ref=sr_ex_n_1

Many thanks for the links.

Well, I visited Bonn c.1997. Beethoven Haus was closed for renovation, and the museum was temporarily transferred to a large town house a little walk away. My memory may be not as good as it used to be, but I'm certain that up on the first floor, stood the English piano. I guess in the meantime, it might have been transferred to Hungary.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, I visited Bonn c.1997. Beethoven Haus was closed for renovation, and the museum was temporarily transferred to a large town house a little walk away. My memory may be not as good as it used to be, but I'm certain that up on the first floor, stood the English piano. I guess in the meantime, it might have been transferred to Hungary.

You're right - there is a Broadwood instrument "constructed in the same way" owned and displayed in the Beethoven-Haus,

https://da.beethoven.de/sixcms/list.php?page=museum_internetausstellung_seiten_en&sv%5Binternetausstellung.id%5D=31570&skip=9

... but Beethoven's own Broadwood was bought and then given to Liszt, who himself donated it to the Hungarian National Museum.

https://www.worldpianonews.com/event/beethovens-broadwood-bicentenary/

In 1991 it was restored, and taken on tour the next year for a series of recitals given by Melvyn Tan - the instrument so valuable that it (rather than Tan) was accompanied by two Interpol officers who never left sight of it! A recording of the Bagatelles and the Rule Britannia variations made at that time using the Beethoven Broadwood is available:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beethoven-Bagatelles-Britannia-Variations-1992-11-10/dp/B014I78TRG

[Quarky]

That's all fascinating, many thanks!

It must have been the Broadwood "clone" that was exhibited. It was positioned at the entrance to a large room, where there were some more instruments, but the Broadwood was blocking the entrance. There was not a piano stool, but any visitor might have pressed the keys. No specific security arrangements, and certainly not two Interpol agents standing guard! I picked up some leaflets while I was there, which might have confirmed my recollection, but I had a grand clear out a year or two back- just leaving a Beethoven bust on a mantle shelf.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I read your last sentence as meaning you'd raided the Museum, leaving just the bust behind!

I have played on a reproduction 1820 Broadwood piano - the Beethoven Broadwood Trio came to a local Arts Centre to give a couple of concerts, and Michael Freyhan very kindly let me have a go. Largely wasted on my piano technique, but I was immediately impressed by the ease of the keyboard action (it sometimes felt as if you could have blown on the keys and they'd've played the note!) and the response - not just in dynamic but in timbre; something modern instruments just don't "do". Florid passages in the works from the last decade of the composer's life are much more than filigree ornamentation on that Broadwood. (Freyhan included the Op 110 Sonata as part of one of the concerts - an "A"-level Set Work at the time - the colours! The colours!!)

[Ein Heldenleben]

I read your last sentence as meaning you'd raided the Museum, leaving just the bust behind!

I have played on a reproduction 1820 Broadwood piano - the Beethoven Broadwood Trio came to a local Arts Centre to give a couple of concerts, and Michael Freyhan very kindly let me have a go. Largely wasted on my piano technique, but I was immediately impressed by the ease of the keyboard action (it sometimes felt as if you could have blown on the keys and they'd've played the note!) and the response - not just in dynamic but in timbre; something modern instruments just don't "do". Florid passages in the works from the last decade are much more than filigree ornamentation on that Broadwood. (Freyhan included the Op 110 Sonata as part of one of the concerts - an "A"-level Set Work at the time - the colours! The colours!!)

Strikes me that this is all more evidence that the Helter Skelter metronome markings in the later sonatas and the abundance of demisemiquavers were obtainable on Beethoven era pianos with their much lighter finger pressure Not to mention the Effects like the trill on the 4/5 fingers with the melody on 1/2 at the end of the variation movt in Op.111 Very few pianists attempt the fastest speeds on Steinways - perhaps only Schnabel

[kernelbogey]

Interesting background information today on how LvB was introduced in Bonn to radical thinking of the day: the background to Choral Symphony finale and Fidelio.

[kernelbogey]

I have updated the OP to reflect last week's COTW, with apologies for delay.

(Did anyone listen? .)

[jayne lee wilson]

Had this playing in the house recently, not listened terribly critically, up to Op. 7 and Op.10 now, but it seems wonderfully fluid, light-of-touch yet expressive.... do try it if you can...

https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/beethoven-32-sonatas-konstantin-lifschitz/iuqdixs54a42b

Lifschitz recorded the whole cycle across 8 days after several live performances....to judge from the photos, the piano is a Steinway D...

[kernelbogey]

A new week of LvB: Donald Macleod follows Beethoven as he sets himself up in his new home of Vienna.

[kernelbogey]

I am curious, as this thread attracts little attention, whether members here are listening to these programmes. Or is there perhaps little to say about them...?

[LMcD]

I am curious, as this thread attracts little attention, whether members here are listening to these programmes. Or is there perhaps little to say about them...?

For me, one of the strengths and joys of CoTW is that it (re)introduces me to a variety of composers and works through the year - something which 26 doses of Beethoven, or indeed of another composer, every other week will fail to do.