We are pleased to announce that The Unheard Beethoven, Inc. has been recognized as a charitable organization by the Internal Revenue Service under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This means that all donations to The Unheard Beethoven to help us with server costs and other related expenses are …
Longtime followers of The Unheard Beethoven may have run across Romanian composer Adrian Gagiu’s Symphony no. 4, based on Beethoven’s sketches for the Tenth Symphony, Biamonti 838. Gagiu’s realization of the sketches in the form of his symphony have been on our site for many years. Gagiu in 2021 has …
The last major composition that Beethoven worked on before his death was an intended string quintet in C. He only managed to fully score the introduction to the first movement, but left behind substantial sketch and draft material for all four planned movements when he died in March of 1827. …
The Unheard Beethoven is now a partner and ambassador for the Happy Birthday Ludwig project, which enables everyone around the world to post their 250th birthday greetings for the immortal composer. You can see our well wishes here. And you can post your own greeting here at the main Happy …
In January, 2020, a piano dance by Beethoven in the style of a Ländler was found in the Vienna City Library by Dr. Jochen Reutter, editor of the Wiener Urtext edition of Beethoven’s works. The “Classical Cake” podcast linked below includes a discussion with Reutter and a performance of the …
The New York Times reports a reconstruction of a long-lost aria for Florestan from the first version of Leonore. Working from a continuity draft and sketches in the Leonore Sketchbook in Berlin, Crutchfield has reconstructed a portion of Florestan’s opening to Act III in which he remembers happier times, instead …
UPDATE: My comprehensive review comparing all three boxes is available now at MusicWeb International. As we approach Beethoven’s 250th birthday, three (so far) massive boxes of his complete works will soon be hitting the shelves! The biggest and most expensive of the three is the New Complete Edition released by …
Previously unrecorded folksongs Hess 192 and Hess 201 come to CD, courtesy of the Celtic music group Makaris! Things are really heating up as we approach the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, and we will have more news regarding forthcoming recordings and big boxes, but we did not want this …
One of the largest groups of Unheard Beethoven works is the counterpoint exercises that Beethoven wrote for Haydn and Albrechtsberger while he was their student in Vienna. Long inaccessible to the public, the Beethovenhaus and G.Henle recently published a transcription of these exercises. At long last, we are able to …
The kind folks at Mozart Circle recently interviewed Mark and Willem about The Unheard Beethoven. Read more about the history of the site, where it’s going and what its founders are up to at the Mozart Circle December 2017 Interview
Our friends at the Beethovenhaus have issued through Henle the long-awaited second edition of the classic Thematic Catalogue of Beethoven’s Works by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm. The new edition, edited by Kurt Dorfmüller, Norbert Gertsch and Julia Ronge, brings much of the research up to date. The new catalogue …
A recent CD of Beethoven piano pieces played by Tobias Koch on period instruments contains several items that will be of interest to our readers. These pieces appear to be world premiere recordings. The first of these is a familiar piece, the so-called Easy Sonata in C, WoO 51. A …
We are exceedingly pleased to present the long-lost Beethoven song Hess 137, in a realization by our own Willem, both in synthesized form and with live performers. Through research and a string of happy coincidences, we were able to identify the text of a song that Beethoven had considered offering …
We at The Unheard Beethoven were saddened to hear of the death of Joseph Kerman, who has been a vital force in our work. Without his pioneering efforts in the Kafka Miscellany held by the British Library, and with the studies of the watermarks of Beethoven’s manuscripts, we would know …
We at The Unheard Beethoven are exceedingly pleased to announce several additions to our little Beethoven family, three celebrated Beethoven scholars who have kindly agreed to be contributing authors. * Professor Barry Cooper, University of Manchester. Barry Cooper studied music at University College, Oxford (MA, 1973; DPhil., 1974), where he …
The International Beethoven Project presented the world premiere of the song “Liebe” or “Ich wiege dich in meinem Arm” (Hess 137) at the Chicago Beethoven Festival on Sunday, September 8, 2013. Lost since 1822, and known only by a scrawling of its first line in a price list sent by …
We at The Unheard Beethoven are extremely excited to announce our recent discovery of a Beethoven song for male voice and piano, lost since 1822. The song, “Ich wiege dich in meinem Arm” (I cradle you in my arms) Hess 137, was a complete mystery for nearly two centuries. The …
The author of the Canon in C, Hess Anhang 60, who has remained unknown for almost two centuries, has at last been identified as Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749). Several canons can be found in Beethoven’s manuscripts dating from the time when he studied counterpoint with Albrechtsberger in Vienna in 1793-94. …
Last February a number of unheard Beethoven pieces were performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica del Lario, conducted by the inspirational Pierangelo Gelmini. It took place on 23 February, 2013, in Como, Italy, at Cantù – Teatro Comunale San Teodoro. Here is the programme Among the highlights: The “Jena” Symphony, attributed …
Recently Professor Barry Cooper, of Manchester University, famous for his reconstruction of the 10th Symphony, discovered amongst the sketches of the Missa Solemnis an unknown hymn by Beethoven. It is an arrangement of the Gregorian Chant ‘Pange lingua’. Professor Cooper was so kind to share this link with us : Pange …