Stay in tune. Join our mailing list.
Thank you.
Adagio — Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Tempo di menuetto — Trio
Tema con variazioni. Andante
Scherzo. Allegro molto e vivace — Trio
Andante con moto alla marcia — Presto
‘Today, Wednesday, April 2nd, 1800, Herr Ludwig van Beethoven will have the honour to give a grand concert for his benefit in the Royal Imperial Court Theater beside the Berg.’
Beethoven’s first benefit concert in Vienna might be best known now as the premiere of his First Symphony, but in his own day it was another premiere on the program that captured the heart of the music-loving public: his Septet in E-flat major for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass, published in 1802 as his Opus 20.
The long program began with a ‘grand symphony’ by Mozart and ended with Beethoven’s own symphony. It included several excerpts from Haydn’s The Creation, which had premiered in the same venue the year before, as well as the new Septet and one of Beethoven’s piano concertos.
Beethoven also performed an improvisation at the piano. By programming the music of Mozart and Haydn, the savvy young Beethoven – 29 years old at the time – positioned himself as heir to the two great Classical masters.
Beethoven had already established himself as something of a rebel in Vienna, drawing criticism for his reckless disregard for tradition, so he trod a fine line in this concert. ‘Beethoven’s gambit on this first outing was to be strong but not provocative,’ biographer Jan Swafford writes. ‘One item was manifestly designed to be a hit: the Septet, a divertimento in six movements, moderate and mellifluous, not too hard for amateurs to play or to hear. In short, meant to “please”.’
And please it did, becoming one of the composer’s most popular works in his lifetime and a benchmark against which his conservative critics would forever compare his more revolutionary works, to the composer’s fury.
Beethoven is even quoted as saying: ‘That damned stuff! I wish it were burned!’
The work is Beethoven’s take on the party pieces performed at aristocratic soirées and played enthusiastically by amateurs in their homes – arrangements of this septet for various other combinations of instruments, created by Beethoven and others, were highly successful. Despite his later misgivings, Beethoven was keen to capitalise on the success of the premiere, writing to a publisher: ‘Do send my septet into the world a little more quickly –because the rabble is waiting for it.’
The Septet is structured in the Classical serenade form Mozart employed so effectively in his own serenades. But for all his conscious tribute to those traditions, Beethoven moves away from the paired wind instruments featured in Mozart serenades (like the ‘Gran Partita’) to exploit the instruments’ individual voices and colours alongside the strings.
Beethoven himself may have left this Septet behind, but its popularity then and now is evidence of the incredible craftsmanship and ingenuity he brought to it. As British music writer Jessica Duchen once commented, if Beethoven ‘had written only his Septet Op. 20 and his first 10–15 piano sonatas, he’d still be a great composer’. More than two centuries later, the Septet has lost none of its sparkle.
Adagio – Allegro con brio
You can hear Mozart’s legacy in the chirpy first movement, after a more formal introduction in ‘a tone of high-Mozartian elegance’, as Swafford puts it.
Adagio cantabile
Clarinet and violin shine against a pulsing accompaniment in the tranquil second movement, climbing to a peaceful close in the final bars.
Tempo di menuetto
The strings drive the Viennese dance of the minuet, while the trio section shows off the nimble dexterity of the wind players.
Tema con variazioni: Andante
The fourth movement is a set of variations on a popular folk tune, ‘Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer’ (first heard on violin and viola). Beethoven plays with the varied colours and effects possible with this combination of instruments – listen out for the beautiful clarinet and bassoon duet in particular.
Scherzo: Allegro molto e vivace
The horn announces the bright scherzo of the fifth movement, the strings providing an effervescent accompaniment.
Andante con moto alla marcia
The last movement begins in a solemn mood, the darkest moment in the whole work. Beethoven’s burnished horn lines give the introduction a powerful gravitas and haunting beauty – before energetic strings launch us into the spirited march of the finale.
© Angus McPherson, 2024