Beethoven in ultra-small

Experience Beethoven’s symphonies in chamber arrangements and open your ears anew! In the Symphonie en miniature series, which consists of three concerts in the Rhein-Sieg district, you will have the opportunity to experience his symphonies performed as a trio, quartet, or nonet. Christoph Vratz discusses why these arrangements flourished during Beethoven’s time and the appeal of these reductions.

It’s a treasure hunt for music lovers! The field of musical arrangements is immeasurable and still offers room for discovery. In an era without records, CDs, or streaming services, these arrangements were important for two reasons: to popularize music and to adapt works for larger ensembles in living rooms. In the early 19th century, solo concertos and symphonies were widely disseminated in the form of domestic music.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies, in particular, exerted an almost magical attraction on arrangers during the composer’s lifetime and beyond. Today, we would call them followers, but back then, it was primarily his colleagues and students who followed their master with great enthusiasm and rearranged his works.

Around three years after the first publication of Beethoven’s Second Symphony as an orchestral work, an arrangement for piano trio was published by the Viennese publisher Artaria in 1806. This arrangement was overseen by Ferdinand Ries (who also arranged the »Eroica« for piano quartet) and Carl Czerny (who arranged the symphonies for piano four-hands). Incidentally, Ries once claimed that Beethoven had given him the autograph score of the symphony. However, it had been »stolen from him by a friend, out of pure friendship«. Today, Beethoven is often referred to as the author of this trio version because he supervised its creation. This attribution is linked to the first publication, which states that the arrangement was »par l’Auteur même«, i.e. by the composer himself. In the »Wiener Zeitung«, on the other hand, the announcement reads: »révu et corrigé par l’Auteur même« (so just »reviewed and corrected«).

Nevertheless, Beethoven never saw a problem with arrangements being published under his name. He often contributed to these arrangements himself, sometimes more and sometimes less, as was common practice at the time. However, Beethoven attached great importance to having control. He always reserved the right to make any necessary corrections.

The third symphony, the »Eroica«, was so popular that it has led to a veritable boom in arrangements. As well as piano arrangements for two and four hands, there are versions for piano trio, quartet, septet and nonet. Incidentally, a particularly original version of the second movement exists for voice, choir and timpani, arranged by a certain William Gardiner. The nonet version appeared in 1818, presumably arranged by Carl Friedrich Ebers, who, like Beethoven, was born in 1770.

Scraping off the patina will bring us closer to the ›ultra‹ experience that Beethoven’s audience had with this symphonic monument.