Postponed premières and mammoth concerts
Here you can see the corrected copy of the Terzet "Tremate, empi, tremate" op. 116. The work for three soloists and orchestra was composed between the winter of 1801/02 and the spring of 1803, while Beethoven was receiving tuition from Salieri. The text - probably suggested by Salieri - is from an opera by Giuseppe Sarti, which was first performed at the Viennese Hoftheater in 1794 and was extremely popular. Beethoven had at this time already made a name for himself as an instrumental composer. He went to Salieri, the great "old" man of Italian opera, to take lessons in vocal composition and to perfect his knowledge of setting texts to music. Although it was originally an exercise, Beethoven planned a public performance of the Terzet in Holy Week in 1802. This concert was cancelled and first took place a year later on 5 April 1803. Beethoven had the copy of the score shown here made for the performance. Despite the fact that audiences of the time were used to lengthy concerts, the Terzet was not finally included in the concert in April 1803. The programme was already far too long, including Beethoven's First and Second Symphonies, his Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio "Christus am Ölberge" ("Christ on the Mount of Olives"), so the Terzet was spontaneously cut. The first performance was finally given in February 1814, in an academy, which had also taken on mammoth proportions. Aside from the Terzet, which was the shortest work performed, the programme included Beethoven's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies as well as the "Battle Symphony" Wellington's Victory, op. 91. Op. 116 was almost certainly a crowd puller due to it being a new setting of a popular hit and its Italian style. In addition the soprano part was sung by a star, Anna Milder-Hauptmann. During his lifetime Beethoven performed the Terzet a further two times and also recommended it to his pupil Ferdinand Ries for the 8th Lower Rhine Music Festival. (J.R.)
