The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
[35] In the chapter immediately preceding the present one in the
revised German edition of this biography, Dr. Riemann introduces the
following: “Through the efforts of Otto Jahn, Gustav Nottebohm and
Erich Prieger, it has been made possible measurably to observe the
transformations which ‘Fidelio’ underwent between its first production
and its publication. The mysterious disappearance (possibly theft) of
several scores made it extremely difficult to determine the form in
which it was represented--‘Fidelio’ in three acts in 1805, ‘Leonore’
in two acts in 1806, and ‘Fidelio’ in two acts in 1814--the statements
touching the omissions and restorations of single numbers being
insufficient and not free from contradictions. About 1850, however.
Otto Jahn succeeded in putting together a score of the second revision
of 1806 from the separate parts; of this he published a vocal score
with pianoforte accompaniment towards the close of 1853 through
Breitkopf and Härtel. He also gave some hints concerning its variations
from the score of 1805. After another half-century Erich Prieger
collected the material for a restoration of the work as it was at the
first production in 1805, compiled a vocal score and gave it to the
public through Breitkopf and Härtel. More than that--he occasioned its
performance at the centennial celebration in the Royal Opera House
in Berlin.” From Prieger’s preface we take in part the following
statements:
“In 1807 Breitkopf and Härtel published three numbers from the second
revision of 1806--viz: the Trio in E-flat, ‘Ein Mann ist bald gewonnen’
(afterwards elided), the canon quartet, and the duet ‘Gut, Söhnchen,
gut’; not until 1810 was a vocal score of the second version published.
It came from the press of Breitkopf and Härtel, but was without
overtures and finales. The overture in C, No. 3, which was performed
with the opera in 1806, was published by Breitkopf and Härtel, also
in 1810; the overture in C, No. 2, with which the representation of
1805 began, edited by Otto Jahn, was published by B. and H. at the end
of 1853. (It was performed in Leipsic on January 27 of that year.)
Nottebohm notes the performance of the four overtures on January
11, 1840, and a publication in 1842; but this refers to the work as
disfigured by cuts. The so-called ‘first’ C major overture found
amongst Beethoven’s posthumous effects and published by Haslinger as
Op. 138 is in reality the first of the series, the one which, according
to Schindler’s report (third edition, I, 127), was tried over once at
Prince Lichnowsky’s and put aside as too simple, but purchased at once
by Haslinger. It is true that Nottebohm discovered sketches for the
overture in company with sketches for the symphony in C minor and, from
this fact, argued that the overture had been composed between April,
1807, and December, 1808 (see ‘Beethoveniana,’ pp. 60 ~et seq.~): but
in his analysis of the sketchbook of 1803, extending from October,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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