Beethoven dedicated the two Opus 102 Cello Sonatas (Day 287f) to Countess Anne Marie Erdödy, who was separated from her husband the Count and lived with her three children at Jedlersee near Vienna. She was said to have been an excellent pianist.
Although dedicated to Countess Erdödy, Beethoven wrote the Opus 102 Cello Sonatas for the cellist Joseph Linke, who was once a member of Count Razumovsky’s String Quartet but who also performed at Countess Erdödy’s home with the Countess on piano.
An obituary of Joseph Linke described his cello interpretations as “flattering, capricious, passionate and so on, his playing capturing the critical essence of Beethoven’s music.” (quoted in the book Beethoven’s Cello, p. 127)
Often living at Countess Erdödy’s estate were both Joseph Linke the cellist as well as Johann Xaver Brauchle, who was music teacher to the Countess’s three children: Marie, Friederike, and August, known as Mimi, Fritzi, and Gusti.
A letter from Beethoven to Johann Brauchle in the summer of 1815 reads:
Do have a Kugelhupf baked in the form of a violoncello for our cellist, so that he can practice on it, even though not with his fingers, yet with his stomach and his mug — As soon as I can do so, I will come to you for a few days —
I will bring the two cello sonatas —
All good wishes — I kiss and embrace all three children in thought. (Beethoven Letters No. 550)
Beethoven celebrated his friendship with Johann Brauchle and Joseph Linke with a three-voice canon catalogued as WoO 167, probably also from the summer of 1815. The text consists solely of their names: “Brauchle” and “Linke.”
#Beethoven250 Day 289
Canon “Brauchle, Linke” (WoO 167), c. 1815
A studio performance of this short three-voice canon.
#Beethoven250 Day 289
Adagio for in A♭ Major for 3 Horns (Hess 297), 1815
Not much is known about this 10-measure counterpoint study except that it seems to be complete and not a fragment of something else.