Gavotte in F for Piano Four Hands, Anhang 8 nr. 1 (6.91 MB)
A grouping of pieces for piano duet, a Gavotte in F major, an Allegro in B-flat major, and a fragmentary Marzia lugubre in C minor (only five complete measures, with one voice in the sixth) were thought at one time to be compositions of the young Beethoven. However, Otto Deutsch proved conclusively that all three were originally the work of Leopold Anton Kozeluch, from his ballet La ritrovata figlia di Ottone II, which was performed in Vienna in 1794. It seems highly improbable that these are arrangements by Beethoven of the Kozeluch works; while he was known to arrange and copy Bach, Handel and Mozart, contemporaries such as Kozeluch were not something he typically copied or arranged in this manner.
Kozeluch (1747-1818)
Kozeluch, originally from Bohemia, had also studied under Albrechtsberger as did Beethoven fifteen years later, and was a noted pianist. Like Beethoven and Haydn, Kozeluch also arranged Scottish songs for George Thomson. He was highly prolific, with over 400 works, including 30 symphonies, twenty-four violin sonatas and sixty-three piano trios.
Since the handwriting on these pieces has been remarked by Willy Hess as being similar to that of the Piano Trio in D, Anhang 3 (and all of these pieces were published by the overenthusiastic musicologist Georges de Saint-Foix as works of Beethoven in the 1920s), the question arises as to whether all of these pieces might be Kozeluch's. Certainly he was no stranger to four-hands piano, having written a Concerto for that rather oddball configuration. More research needs to be done on this mysterious handwriting, but we are fairly safe in believing these arrangements are not Beethoven's handiwork. We nevertheless present here the two complete pieces, and the fragmentary Marzia lugubre, the originals of which are in the British Library, Add. Ms. 31748, folios 10-12.
WoO: Anh. 8
Hess: Anh. 18