Beethoven Symphony No.3 Eroica arranged for piano quartet by Ferdiand Ries

Presents

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No.3 in E flat Major, Op.55 "Eroica"

Arranged for Violin, Viola, Violoncello and Piano by Ferdinand Ries

Soundbite 1st Movement-Allegro con brio

Soundbite 2nd Movement-Marcia funebre, adagio assai

Soundbite 3rd Movement-Menuetto, scherzo

Soundbite 4th Movement-Allegro molto

In Europe from around the end of the eighteenth-century and for most of the 19th century there was an insatiable demand for arrangements. Why? Today we take for granted the ease with which music can be heard. Compact discs and online streaming services are widespread and inexpensive. But in the 19th century, music-lovers could only hear music performed live. And after the French Revolution, European governments were highly suspicious of large gatherings of men and discouraged them by means of police surveillance, fearing revolutionary plotting. To rehearse and perform a symphony, of course, took a large group of men. Add to this that a huge new market for chamber music came into existence about this time as home music making became one of the most popular pastimes for the emerging bourgeois classes of Western Europe. Both composers and publishers, with an eye toward profits, made a regular practice of having chamber music arrangements made of large scale works by well-known composers. Unfortunately, many of these arrangements were unauthorized by the original composers and sold by unscrupulous publishers. Beethoven was well aware of this situation and lamented "Arranging is so in vogue nowadays that it would be futile for a composer to try to prevent it; but one can at least rightly demand that the publisher indicate it on the title page, so that the composer’s honor is not diminished and the public not deceived." But Beethoven also realized that there was money to be made in authorized arrangements and was not above even arranging such works himself. For example, he arranged his Symphony No.2 for Piano Trio. Of course, he was too busy to make more than a few himself, so he took to authorizing his friends and students to undertake such projects. And this is how the arrangement for piano quartet came into existence.

Until the start of the 20th century, after the piano trio, the piano quartet was the next most popular format for chamber music with piano, far more popular than piano quintets. Nearly all composers writing chamber music undertook to write at least one piano quartet. Not so the piano quintet. Hence, Beethoven asked his close friend and arguably his best and most famous student Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838) to create an arrangement for piano quartet. Ries, who had studied with Beethoven for five years, who acted as his secretary, his agent, not to mention his friend, knew Beethoven probably better than anyone else. As a composer, his style often resembled Beethoven, how could it not. And Beethoven sometimes jokingly complained, "Oh, Ries...he imitates me too much." Unfortunately, Ries, as one of Europe's foremost piano soloists and an important composer in his own right, led a very busy life and did not get around to making this arrangement until after Beethoven's death. And in addition to this, his arrangement remained unpublished until 20 years after his own death.

You might think that turning a symphony into a piano quartet would be a hopeless task with the result being highly unsatisfactory, but this largely depended upon who was doing the arranging. Besides being Beethoven's alter ego, Ries himself was a first rate composer who wrote and performed chamber music throughout his life. He had three fine piano quartets of his own to his credit. Besides being a good pianist, Ries was also an excellent violinist and as such, he knew how to write for strings as well as piano. Hence, what Ries produced is almost as impressive as the symphony itself.

Not readily available, we are pleased to offer the original 1857 Simrock edition and recommend it to both professionals and amateurs will find it a very satsifying work. And in the concert hall, it is sure to make a strong impression.

Parts: $34.95

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