Alon Sariel - Beethoven: Music for Mandolin & Fortepiano (2020)

Born in Bonn in 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was the eldest son of a singer in the musical establishment of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the Archbishop’s former Kapellmeister, whose name he took. The household was not a happy one. Beethoven’s father became increasingly inadequate both as a singer and as a father and husband, with his wife always ready to draw invidious comparisons between him and his own father. Beethoven, however, was trained as a musician, however erratically, and duly entered the service of the Archbishop, serving as an organist and as a string player in the archiepiscopal orchestra. He was already winning some distinction in Bonn, when, in 1787, he was first sent to Vienna, to study with Mozart. The illness of his mother forced an early return from this venture and her subsequent death left him with responsibility for his younger brothers, in view of his father’s domestic and professional failures. In 1792 Beethoven was sent once more to Vienna, now to study with Haydn, whom he had met in Bonn.

Beethoven’s early career in Vienna was helped very considerably by the circumstances of his move there. The Archbishop was a son of the Empress Maria Theresa and there were introductions to leading members of society in the Imperial capital. Here, Beethoven was able to establish an early position for himself as a pianist of remarkable ability, coupled with a clear genius in the necessarily related arts of improvisation and composition. The onset of deafness at the turn of the century seemed an irony of fate. It led Beethoven gradually away from a career as a virtuoso performer and into an area of composition where he was able to make remarkable changes and extensions of existing practice. Deafness tended to accentuate his eccentricities and paranoia, which became extreme as time went on. At the same time it allowed him to develop his gifts for counterpoint. He continued to revolutionise forms inherited from his predecessors, notably Haydn and Mozart, expanding these almost to bursting point, and introducing innovation after innovation as he grew older. He died in 1827, his death the occasion of public mourning in Vienna.

In 1796 Beethoven set out on a journey that took him to Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, at first, as Mozart had done in 1789, in the company of Prince Lichnowsky. It was in Prague that he wrote a group of pieces for mandolin, intended for Joséphine de Clary, who, the following year, married Count Christian von Clam-Gallas. It has been suggested that Beethoven may have become interested in the mandolin, a popular instrument at the time, through Wenzel Krumpholz, a violinist in Vienna but at the same time distinguished as a mandolin virtuoso, brother of the harpist Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz. Beethoven is said to have taken violin lessons with Wenzel Krumpholz, and was certainly on close terms with him. Carl Czerny, who became a pupil of Beethoven, recalls Krumpholz’s championship of Beethoven, at a time when the latter’s work was often misunderstood. It was Krumpholz who introduced the ten-year-old Czerny to Beethoven, a meeting recalled in some detail by Czerny in his memoirs.

The Sonatina in C minor, WoO 43a, is marked Adagio, each phrase repeated, as it goes on, with a section in C major, before the final coda.

The Sonatina in C major, WoO 44a, is in notable contrast, an Allegro replete with semiquaver figuration for the mandolin and with a brief change to C minor before the conclusion.

The Adagio ma non troppo in E flat major, WoO 43b, is supported by a chordal keyboard accompaniment. The Andante and Variations in D major, WoO 44b, explores more fully the possibilities of the mandolin in its variations, including a slower minor key version of the material and a rapid final variation.