BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, May 22, 1822

Beethoven’s former pupil Ferdinand Ries is not immune to Rossini Fever. S.A. Steiner & Co. today advertises in the Wiener Zeitung a Polonaise for piano, arranged from Rossini’s opera Tancred. The piece is Ries’ op.104.

In the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, the Breitkopf & Härtel firm advertises the newly published overture to Beethoven’s Fidelio. “Newly published” is used quite broadly here to mean “sometime in the last nine months,” since it includes all publications of the firm since Michaelmas (September 29th), 1821. Also on the list is an arrangement of the Egmont overture, op.84, for piano four hands, by an unnamed party.

The Fidelio Overture is here performed by Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic: