Scan 84
Baker S Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians Third Edition, 1919
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1fullest flow of ideas (see 'sketch-books'), not as yet overcast by the gloom of his keenest anguish.—It should be noted, that von Lenz's classification is not chronological, either in dates of composition, final completion, or publication; but is, in part, a somewhat arbitrary arrangement according to the 'style' of the several works. E. g., he classes the second symphony (written 1802, performed 1803, published 1804, as op. 36) among works of the 'first period.'—The chief works comprised in the 'second period' are the six symphonies from III to VIII inclusive; his one opera, Fidelio; the music to Egmont; the ballet Prometheus; the mass in C, op. 86; the oratorio Christus am Oelberg (1803); the Coriolanus overture; the pf.-concertos in G and Eb; his violin-concerto; the quartets in F min., Eb, and those inscribed to Razumovsky; 4 pf.-trios (op. 38; op. 70, Nos. 1 and 2; op. 97); and 14 pf.-sonatas (among them the two quasi fantasia, op. 27; the pastorale, op. 28; op. 31, No. 2, in D min.; the Waldstein, op. 53; the appassionata, op. 57; and Les Adieux, l'absence, et le retour, op. 81); also the Liederkreis, etc.
3The 'third period' includes the five pf.-sonatas op. 101, 106, 109, 110, 111; also (acc. to date publ.) op. 102, Nos. 1 and 2; the Missa solemnis in D, op. 123; the Ninth Symphony, op. 125; the Ruins of Athens overture, op. 113, and march with chorus, op. 114; the orchestral overtures op. 115 and 124; the grand fugue for string-quartet, op. 133; and the great string-quartets op. 127 (Eb), op. 130 (Bb), op. 131 (C# min.), op. 132 (A min.), and op. 135 (F).
5Fidelio probably cost B. more pains and exasperation than any other one work. As early as 1803 he arranged with Schikaneder, manager of the Theater an der Wien, to write an opera; it was produced Nov. 20, 1805, amid the commotion and gloom incident to the entrance, just a week before, of the French army into Vienna. Originally in three acts, it was withdrawn after three consecutive performances; pruned, rearranged, and revised time and again, and brought out March 29, 1806, with better success, but withdrawn by the author after only two performances. Once more sweepingly revised, it was revived in 1814, and was this time very successful. The opera was at first named Leonore, after the heroine; and its overture, twice rewritten, forms an interesting study in evolution; the present Fidelio overture is quite different. B.'s sketch-book for this opera contains 300 large pages of 16 staves each, crammed with heterogeneous notes.—The Eroica symphony (No. 3) also has a history. At first entitled the Sinfonia grande Napoleon Bonaparte, in honor of the supposed champion of 'liberty, equality and fraternity,' B. tore up the dedication in a transport of rage on hearing of Napoleon's proclamation as emperor (May 18, 1804); the title was altered to Sinfonia eroica composta per festeggiare il souvenire d'un grand'uomo [Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man].—With the Ninth Symphony B. touches the limit of expression in symphonic form; the choral finale, where orchestral and vocal music blend in an outburst of ecstasy (the words are from Schiller's 'Hymn to Joy'), is the apotheosis of musical art. Yet what said Fétis, the French critic and historiographer, to this finale? 'Nevertheless, this melody [the theme of the Hymn] which caused him [B.] these transports of joy, is quite vulgar; but he regarded it less from a musical point of view than from that of the sentiment which he wished to express [!!!]. In his preoccupation in this respect there was more of German dreaminess than of aesthetic conception.' Such a criticism reminds one of what von Lenz said concerning the Parisian conception of Liszt: 'They called him "Litz"—that was as far as they ever got with Liszt in Paris!'
7Up to 1815, B.'s material welfare had increased, though hardly in proportion to his social and artistic triumphs. An honored and frequent guest at the houses of art-lovers like the princes Lichnowsky, Lobkowitz and Kinsky, the counts Moritz Lichnowsky, Razumovsky and Franz von Brunswick, and Baron von Gleichenstein, his bearing towards his hosts was that of an equal to equals; at the time of the Vienna Congress, as a guest of Archduke Rudolf, he met the various reigning monarchs as their peer, and even (as he said himself) let them pay court to him. A curious incident is the invitation extended to B. in 1809, by the de facto 'King of Westphalia,' Jérôme Bonaparte, to assume the post of maître de chapelle at Kassel at a salary of 600 ducats (about $1,500). There is no proof that B. seriously entertained the proposition; he really wanted to become Imperial Kapellmeister at Vienna; but the bare possibility of losing the great composer so dismayed his Viennese admirers, that Archduke Rudolf, and Prince Lobkowitz and Kinsky, settled on B. an annuity of 4,000 florins (nominally $2,000, but in depreciated paper of fluctuating value). After 1815, his growing deafness, and the sore trials incidental to the care of his nephew, caused him so much mental distress that he often thought himself on the verge of ruin, though he never really suffered want.—In December, 1826, he caught a violent cold, which resulted in an attack of pneumonia; dropsy then supervened, and after several unsuccessful operations he succumbed to the disease on March 26, 1827. His funeral was
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