BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, June 19, 1823

The second subscription quartet performance of the Schuppanzigh Quartet is held today at noon at the Musikverein. Once again, the concert features one quartet each by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. That by Haydn is in C major, and Mozart’s is in D minor [probably his Quartet No.15, K.421]. Beethoven’s is described as being in C major with a fugue, which would fit his String Quartet Nr. 9 in C, op.59/3 (1808), the third of the Razoumovsky cycle of quartets, which includes a fugal Allegro molto in the finale, concluding with an enormous crescendo. The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung for July 30, 1823 (Nr.31) at col. 501 described the concert as “once again, a real feast for the ear.”

Publisher S.A. Steiner & Co. today announces in the Wiener Zeitung at 566 the publication of two new works by Beethoven’s former student, Carl Czerny. The first is an arrangement of Beethoven’s Violin Romance #2 op.50, as a Rondeau brillant for piano four hands, op.44. The second is a set of Variations on an Original Bohemian Theme for piano solo, op.46.

Sauer & Leidesdorf announces several newly-published works from another former student of Beethoven, Ferdinand Ries. These are Variations on a German Theme for pianoforte, op.105/3, and the Rondeau for pianoforte op.102, as well as the previously-published Rondeau for pianoforte on a theme from The Barber of Seville by Rossini.

Finally, Sauer & Leidesdorf announces on the same page the newest publication from the pen of Franz Schubert, three songs for bass voice with piano accompaniment, op.21. These are Auf der Donau (today catalogued as D.553), Der Schiffer (D.536), and Wie Ulfru fischt (D.525), all on poems by Johann Mayrhofer. These songs had all been written in 1817, and only now are being published as Schubert gains fame.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau here sings Auf der Donau, D.553, accompanied by Gerald Moore: