Ludwig van Beethoven, Zwei Stücke für Klavier (Orphika) (C-Dur, F-Dur) WoO 51, Autograph, Fragment

Two pieces for Eleonore

Beethoven more or less grew up with the von Breuning children of which Eleonore was the oldest. Together with her brother Lorenz she was taught the piano by her childhood friend Ludwig. In the summer of 1792 Beethoven apologised to her in a letter, saying he had too much work to do to copy the "long-promised sonata" for her. For a long time researchers and historians have supposed that the sonata Beethoven referred to was composition WoO 51, also known as "light piano sonata".

Yet the date of 1792 didn't correspond to the paper's characteristics and the handwriting on Beethoven's autograph. Beethoven used the paper between 1796 and 1798, his handwriting, in particular the typical form of the accolade, indicates a date of 1798. When the sonata was published for the first time in 1831, G. Weber remarked the following: "The publisher received the original manuscript (...) from privy medical councillor Dr. Wegeler in Coblenz, whose wife, then Miss von Bräuning, received it in honour in 1796 from the befriended master himself, and stills owns it." (Quote from: "Caecilia" Vol. 13,P. 285) In any case, Wegeler's letter to Schindler written on December 23, 1827 (see history of creation) clearly excludes the date of 1792. (J.R.)