Dec. 23, 1806!

[Joy]

1806 - "Premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in Vienna with violin soloist Franz Clement, for whom Beethoven wrote the piece".

[chopithoven]

I know Beethoven finished this concerto the day before its performance, and Clement played it by reading from the score, with no practice, but it sounds rather impossible. Is there any evidence?

[This message has been edited by chopithoven (edited December 23, 2002).]

[Peter]

Originally posted by chopithoven:
I know Beethoven finished this concerto the day before its performance, and Clement played it by reading from the score, with no practice, but it sounds rather impossible. Is there any evidence?

Not as impossible as Liszt playing the Grieg piano concerto at sight from the manuscript in the presence of the astonished composer!

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'Man know thyself'

[Andrea]

Here is something about this concert from the book "Beethoven" by Ates Orga:

"A final event of the year (1806) took place on 23 December at a benefit Akademie given at the Theater an der Wien by Franz Clement- the first performance of the newly completed Violin Concerto. Destined to occupy a place in history as the first great fiddle concerto of the 19th century, its reception was at first cool. In spite of Czerny's view that it "was produced with very great effect". The Viennese Zeitung für theater, Musik und Poesie (8 January 1807) commented that "the verdict of the cognoscenti is unanimous: they concede that it has some beauty, but maintain that the continuity is often completely fragmented, and that the endless repetition of some commonplace passages might easily prove wearisome". What attracted the public more was Clement's playing, said to have been at sight without previous rehearsal- the hastily written and heavily corrected autograph in the Nationalbibliotek, Vienna, suggest that, as usual, Beethoven had left the completion of the work to the very last moment. In keeping with the day, the first movement was played in the first half, the remaining two in the second. In between Clement offered other pieces, including a work of his own played on one string with the violin turned upside down, a popular trick. In spite of various attempts to resurrect the Concerto, including an adaptation for piano and orchestra published with the original version in 1808 (and including a remarkable cadenza for piano and timpani), its early career proved to be dubious. Alan Tyson, indeed, has observed that during the ensuing thirty years or so its received no more than "about half a dozen further performances"."

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Andrea:
Here is something about this concert from the book "Beethoven" by Ates Orga:

"A final event of the year (1806) took place on 23 December at a benefit Akademie given at the Theater an der Wien by Franz Clement- the first performance of the newly completed Violin Concerto. Destined to occupy a place in history as the first great fiddle concerto of the 19th century, its reception was at first cool. In spite of Czerny's view that it "was produced with very great effect". The Viennese Zeitung für theater, Musik und Poesie (8 January 1807) commented that "the verdict of the cognoscenti is unanimous: they concede that it has some beauty, but maintain that the continuity is often completely fragmented, and that the endless repetition of some commonplace passages might easily prove wearisome". What attracted the public more was Clement's playing, said to have been at sight without previous rehearsal- the hastily written and heavily corrected autograph in the Nationalbibliotek, Vienna, suggest that, as usual, Beethoven had left the completion of the work to the very last moment. In keeping with the day, the first movement was played in the first half, the remaining two in the second. In between Clement offered other pieces, including a work of his own played on one string with the violin turned upside down, a popular trick. In spite of various attempts to resurrect the Concerto, including an adaptation for piano and orchestra published with the original version in 1808 (and including a remarkable cadenza for piano and timpani), its early career proved to be dubious. Alan Tyson, indeed, has observed that during the ensuing thirty years or so its received no more than "about half a dozen further performances"."

This is incredible (in the true sense of the word) to read. These people could not understand the concerto and wanted music in the 'gallant' style of Mozart, whom their fathers and grandfathers had ignored when HE was alive.