Beethoven @ 250: Milestones & Turning Points

“Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes,” once wrote Ludwig van Beethoven. In 2020, Beethoven’s notes will roar and storm about the world, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the great German composer’s birth.
Heifetz Institute President & CEO Benjamin K. Roe offers a survey of Beethoven’s works that focus on the pieces – both famous and obscure – that marked decisive milestones and turning points in his compositional career.

Course Outline

1. March 4, 2020: “Op. 1, No. 1…And Everything Before”

We trace the intellectual, spiritual, and musical development of Beethoven in the city of Bonn, and some of the key early compositions that set him on his path.

Musical Selections:

2. March 11, 2020: Master of the Classical Style & The Accursed Septet

Student of Haydn, intense studier of Mozart, and inheritor and perfecter of a grand tradition. We focus on Beethoven’s early successes in Vienna, to the delight (and occasional chagrin) of his mentors and the composer himself.

Musical Selections:

Clarinet Trio in B♭ major (“Gassenhauer”), Op. 11 (1797)
String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18, No. 1 (1800)
Piano & Wind Quartet in E-flat, Op. 16 (1796)
Clarinet Trio in B-flat, Op. 11
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 19 (1788, rev. 1795)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 (1795, rev. 1800)
Septet in E-flat, Op. 20 (1799)

3. March 18, 2020: Eureka! Eroica!

Beethoven battles his demons, and has an outburst of creative breakthroughs that changes the course of musical history.

Musical Selections:

Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 36 (1802)
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat (“Eroica,”), Op. 55 (1803)
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, (“Kreutzer”), Op. 47 (1803)
String Quartet No. 7 in F, Op. 59 No. 1 (“Razumovsky”) (1806)
Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61 (1806)
Cello Sonata in A, Op. 69 (1807)

March 25, 2020: – No Class

4. April 1, 2020: A Period of Transition: Family Battles & The Immortal Beloved

For Beethoven, the ‘90s (in terms of his Opus numbers) reflect a period of creative and personal difficulties that nonetheless reveal some of the most innovative – and downright puzzling – works of his career.

Musical Selections:

Wellington’s Victory (“Battle Symphony”), Op. 91 (1813)
Symphony No. 8 in D, Op. 93 (1812)
String Quartet No. 11 in F minor (“Serioso”) Op. 95 (1810)
Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 (1812)
Piano Trio No. 7 in B-flat major, (“Archduke”), Op. 97 (1811)
An die ferne Geliebte (song cycle), Op. 98 (1816)

5. April 8, 2020: Variations On A Theme

Sonatas, Concertos, String Quartets, and Symphonies, …Beethoven was a master of them all. But he was arguably at his zenith in the “Theme and Variations,” a form he used from some of his earliest to his very last compositions.

Musical Selections:

Piano Quartet in E-flat, WoO 36, No. 1 (1785)
Thirteen variations on Es war einmal ein alter Mann WoO 66 (1792)
Fifteen variations and a fugue on an original theme, (“Eroica Variations”), Op. 35 (1802)
Seven Variations for cello and piano in E-flat major on Bei Männern welche Liebe fühlen from Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1801)
Seven Variations on “God Save The King,” Wo 78 (1803)
String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826)
Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 (1823)
String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826)