New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-07
The Music of Yesterday

Beethoven make prescriptions Of ms
WORKS but he let ms pupil RIes make
others. whicn Ne revised, and per
mitted his brother 20 sell them under
the name OF the composer. In tne
same year. 1902. ne denounced TWO ar
rang4mentS which had been published
without his eonseEt-as uuintets OF one
Of DIS first symphonies and the Septet,
and while admitting that u vas
hard 30 hold out against the
taste which demanded prescriptions
insisted that the publishers indicate
tne fact that they were such on the
title-page $50 mat the honor OF the
composer be not dIscrsdIted nor the
public deceived" Artistically his at
titude vas, Of course, correct, but
there Is too much evidence IN me
story OF MS dealings with publishers
OF his Willingness 20 put money in his
purse b. Remembering some Of MS
compositions and revampiug some o.
his juvenile works after he became
famous 70 make bis conduct even IN
the case of this quartet appear wholly
and ideally unselfish.
However. though the quartet which
he made out OF the innocent little
sonata in 2 changing its key 20 z for
reasons which We could only spec
ulate about now was published N
Vienna in 1902 and also by Simrock,
in Bonn. II was lost 20 the world untli
1875. when NOttebehm called attention
20 II, Simrock found a copy IN his old
stock room, and published IL again as
revised b. Nottebohm. Even then the
world remained deaf and blind. though
Thayer had published Beethoven let
ter which jain mad published without
recognizing the work referred 20, unul
DR.. Wilhelm Altman printed an essay
on il in Die Musk" IN November. 1905,
and Breitkopf and Hdrtel. who had no;
included II IN the complete edition
Of Beethoven's =. Orks. issued a new re-
print revised by Dr. Altman. In this
roundabout way II has finally reached
a performance IN New York.
In the new edition o. Thayer's biog-
raphy Of Beethoven the English ver-
sion OF which would long ago have
been in the hands of Beethoven stu
dents had not the war inundated the
publishers. DR.. Deiters, commenting
en- the quartet version Of the sonata.
SAYS: Beethoven vas already prac-
tised in the art Of quartet writing, and
il is highly interesting 20 observe with
what refinement he turned the plano
forte passages into figures adapted
&c string instruments and added new
,,,ofi1,i almost effacing the impression
of an arrangement. Nevertheless !,
cannot Do said that the effect OF the
work has been improved. The last
movement. which presents only a
syncopated figure instead OF the iuiI-
sounding pianoforte passages, by no
means makes the effect that u does
upon the pianoforte. Il IS easy 20 be
lieve that Beethoven did the work IN
Willingly
This was the impression made upon
this reviewer last night Notte0onm.
discussing the sketches which ne found
in two of Beethoven's notebooks. com
ments. curiously enough, on the tact
that some OF them seemed 70 leave open
the question whether the work was de
signed for piSnOfOrte or a number Oh
instruments: out this comment can
scarcely be said 20 apply 20 anything
beyonc the FIRST movement In the Al
rangemeut fer strings the middle move
ment. which Beethoven does not cail
either a mnuet Or a Scherzo. though
II is possible 20 detect in II the EN-
bryo of the later jocose movement OF
his instrumental pieces, makes the
most agreeable impression, but even
in the changes 20 which he subjected
the first movement 10 get RID OF tne
conventional pianoforte accompaniment
there is a loss of fulness OF tone. How
he did this is illustrated IN these two
examples. The familiar arpeggios IN
the left haJd