In a letter to his music publisher in mid-January, 1801, Beethoven discussed the money he would like to be paid for several of his recent compositions, and then said something extraordinary:
Well, that tiresome business has now been settled. I call it tiresome because I should like such matters to be differently ordered in this world. There ought to be in the world a market for art [Magazin der Kunst] where the artist would only have to bring his works and take as much money as he needed. But, as it is, an artist has to be to a certain extent a business man as well, and how can he manage to be that — Good heavens — again I call it a tiresome business. (Emily Anderson, trans., Beethoven Letters # 44)
Maynard Solomon has traced this proto-Marxist sentiment at length in the chapter “Beethoven’s Magazin der Kunst” of his book Beethoven Essays. Although such ideas go back to ancient Greece and Rome, they were revived in the French Enlightenment, as well as after the Revolution, most notably by François-Noël Babeuf, known as Gracchus, who wrote about a Society of Equals. After advocating the overthrow of the ruling Directory, Babeuf was arrested and guillotined on 27 May 1797.
In Beethoven’s music at this time, it’s spring! Unlike some other musical nicknames, few people have ever thought that the Spring Sonata was an inappropriate description for Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 5. This composition reveals Beethoven reveling in the joys of nature, both spiritual and sensuous.
The Violin Sonata No. 5 is Beethoven’s first violin sonata with four movements. The first movement unfolds with a lyrical violin theme that is prancing-through-the-blossoms glorious, but surprisingly is only a slow introduction to a happy nature dance. “There are some stormy moments,” Angus Watson writes, “but they appear to be meteorological rather than psychological.” The 2nd movement Adagio is a captivatingly expressive aria, a song without words better than Beethoven’s Lieder mit Worten.
The 3rd movement Scherzo and Trio seems to break the mood with its off-kilter beats, but it’s quite short (just over a minute) and is followed by a 4th movement Rondo of sheer adulterated joy.
#Beethoven250 Day 135
Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major “Spring” (Opus 24), 1800–01
A wonderful performance by Russian violinist Alena Baeva and Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko.
in Beethoven’s Chamber Music, Angus Watson notices “a beautiful new melody” almost at the end of the Rondo, “the first and shortest of Beethoven’s many ‘hymns of thanksgiving’.” (p. 113) This occurs at 23:08 in the video, first by the piano and then the violin.
In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;
In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;
In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
— Tennyson, Locksley Hall