Ludwig van Beethoven, "L'amante impaziente", Arietta assai seriosa für Singstimme und Klavier op. 82,4 und Skizze zu op. 82,5, Partitur, Autograph

Beethoven sets Metastasio

Not many original handwritten sources for the Four Italian Ariettas and a Duet op. 82 have survived. Aside from the autograph score of an older version of no. 1, there is only this autograph for the "Arietta assai seriosa" no. 4, "L'amante impaziente", which Beethoven sent to his Leipzig publishers Breitkopf & Härtel in 1810 as an engraver's model. Why Beethoven once again turned to texts by Metastasio in 1809/10 (or even earlier?) remains unclear. Max Unger's supposition that Beethoven wrote the ariettas for Therese Malfatti, whose family was from Italy, is, however, not unlikely. The composer was familiar with Metastasio's texts. Even in his lessons with Antonio Salieri he had set texts by the Italian poet to music (the result of this was the twelve songs for multiple voices WoO 99). Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) was not only the most prominent person in the Viennese musical scene, he was also a much sought after and generous teacher - he gave free tuition to gifted musicians and singers. Between 1793 and 1802 Beethoven went to the famous Italian at irregular intervals to study vocal composition. Salieri, who had made a name for himself amongst other things on account of his operas, did not think highly of setting German texts to music (he completely rejected Singspiele). He mainly "plagued" his pupils, who also included Franz Schubert, with poems by Pietro Metastasio, whom he had personally met. Beethoven stopped having tuition with Salieri in 1802. Ignaz Moscheles, also a pupil of Salieri's from 1808 onwards, reported that he had found a piece of paper on his teacher's table with the words "The pupil Beethoven was here". Did Beethoven visit his old teacher again in connection with the composition of the Ariettas op. 82? (J.R.)