Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zu einem Klavierkonzert in Es-Dur (WoO 4), zu dem Lied "Die Liebe" op. 52,6 und zu verschiedenen Klavierwerken, Autograph

Early sketches

The young Beethoven used every free centimetre on this bifolium around 1790 for various drafts. The only identifiable work is a sketch for the Lied "Die Liebe" ("Love") op. 52 no. 6 on leaf 2r. All the other sketches are drafts for piano, which are in part very detailed. In some places it was obviously much faster and more precise to add a short text as an aid to memory rather than to write an extensive musical text. Thus on the first page (image 1) between the fifth and sixth lines, he writes, "to be played blandly". For the "adagio molto" which begins at the end of the page, he explains, "what is difficult is to play this whole passage legato. This means that one shouldn't hear the fingers being placed on the keys - it should sound as if they are being stroked by a bow."

He wrote down the continuation of the fugue, whose theme is on page 2 (image 2), saying, "almost at the end the theme is augmented". On the last page Beethoven made a note concerning the course of the scale in the right hand, "immediately down and back up again". At the top of the second leaf Beethoven wrote "Rondo zum Concert in es mit Triolen" (A rondo for the concerto in E flat with triplets). Although there was an early piano concerto in E flat (WoO 4), the sketches most probably do not belong to this work. (J.R.)