BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, June 24, 1822

Vienna publisher Sigmund Anton Steiner capitalizes on La gazza ladra being added to the Rossini Festival on June 21 by offering that opera in many different versions: vocal score with piano (with both German and Italian texts), piano solo without words, string quartet, flute quartet, violin duet, flute duet and csakan. A csakan was a kind of end-blown flute invented in 1810, sometimes referred to as the “Romantic recorder.” It was highly popular in Vienna in the 1820s.

For the curious, here is a selection from another Rossini work, Zelmira, arranged for csakan solo by Anton Diabelli, performed by Rubens Küffer:

Steiner also offers the overture to The Thieving Magpie by itself for piano solo and piano four hands, as well as arias, duets and terzets, etc. by themselves with both Italian and German texts.