BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, April 27, 1821

In today’s Wiener Zeitung, J. Riedl advertises, among other new musical items, Beethoven’s set of ten variations on folk songs for piano with flute or violin, op.107, in five volumes. Each volume is priced at 2 florins. This work had been published last year by Nikolaus Simrock.

Jean-Pierre Rampal plays #4 of this set, which is listed as a Scottish air but is actually the Irish tune “St. Patrick’s Day,” with Robert Veyron-Laxcroix on piano here:

Beethoven himself would likely have been interested in Riedl’s offering of four Handel works in piano arrangements, including the oratorio Judas Maccabäus.