BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, July 20, 1824

In London, 12-year-old Franz Liszt writes (in French) a letter to a music publisher. “Dear Sir!! I would be greatly obliged to you if you would take the trouble of coming to see me today at a quarter past 3 having finished a few pieces and as I want to have them engraved, I am appealing to you to ask you to kindly hear them so that you don’t buy a pig in the poke. Franz Liszt.” Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years at 105; British Library M.S. Add. 33965, fol.237-242.

Possible candidates for these juvenile works completed about this time include the following works for solo piano: an Allegro di bravua (S.151, later published as his op.4/1), Rondo di Bravura (S.151, op.4/2), Variations brillantes on a theme from Rossini’s Ermione (S.149, op.2), Impromptu brillant based on themes from Rossini and Spontini (S.150, op.3), and a set of 8 Variations in A-flat major (S.148), dedicated to piano maker (and tour sponsor) Sebastian Erard.

The English publisher declined the offer; all of these works were published a year later in Paris by Erard. Liszt’s Allegro di bravura op.4/1, S.151, is here played by France Clidat.