BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, September 17, 1821

The firm Cappi & Diabelli advertises today in the Wiener Zeitung a new Grand Sonata for Piano Four Hands composed by a “Fr. A. Sommer,” and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph. In typical fawning manner, Rudolph’s dedication is in far larger type than the composer’s own name, which is buried at the end. The composer is Friedrich Anton Sommer. The Archduke’s own copy is held by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, catalogued as VII 14125 (Q 11469). We have been unable to discover anything further about this piece or its composer, who is not mentioned in the ordinarily very thorough Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie.