BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, July 29, 1824

In today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.172) at 723, Anton Diabelli & Co. advertises a number of Beethoven-related works, published by Probst in Leipzig. The first few are arrangements of Beethoven works for piano four hands by Dessau composer Friedrich Schneider (1786-1853): the grand Piano Trio op.1/1, and the grand Trio op.11. These were once again unauthorized transcriptions, and Beethoven was not paid for them. Diabelli also offers a newly-published set of variations on Beethoven’s Das Glück der Freundschaft op.88, from former pupil Carl Czerny, his op.55.

In the same advertisement, Diabelli lists a new set of variations on Rule Britannia for piano and orchestra by Ferdinand Ries, op.116. In 1803, while Ries was his student, Beethoven had written his own five variations to this song for piano solo, WoO 79. The Ries set can be heard here, performed by Christopher Hinterhuber, accompanied by Uwe Grodd conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic:

Our next update will be August 1.