BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, January 5, 1823

Italian virtuoso guitarist Luigi Legnani, who took Vienna by storm and made guitar even more popular an instrument than before, today performs his farewell to Vienna concert. Among the works performed are a concerto for guitar and a set of variations, both composed by Legnani. The Vienna Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung Nr. 23 for January 18, 1823 at col. 48 reports that”The applause was great, the audience very numerous.”

Adam Kossler here plays Legnani’s Grand Variations op.16 on the theme Nel cor più non mi sento from the opera La Molinara by Giovanni Paisiello, a theme upon which Beethoven also wrote a set of variations, WoO 70 (1795).