Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblätter zum Lied "Sehnsucht" WoO 134 und anderen Werken sowie Notizen, Autograph

"Free" improvisation?

Beethoven did not begin his career as a composer but as a piano virtuoso. It was his failing hearing that partly forced him to change tracks. His contemporaries did not only revere him for his compositions but also for his talent as a pianist. In his "Pianoforte- Schule" of 1842, Carl Czerny wrote, "In his best years Beethoven was one of the greatest pianists and in his rendering of legato-playing, adagio, fugue and improvisation he was unsurpassed". Beethoven's fame as a pianist was in part due to his technical and virtuosic skill but also - less surprisingly - due to his talent for improvisation. After a piano competition with Beethoven, the famous pianist at the time, Abbé Josef Gelinek, reported, "I will remember yesterday! The devil is in the young person. I have never heard such playing! He improvises on a theme I gave him as I have never even heard Mozart improvising." In his memoirs, Carl Czerny also confirms that it was due to his improvisation that Beethoven "occasioned the most respect in the first years after his arrival in Vienna".

Beethoven was without a doubt a master of his instrument. Improvising on the piano was certainly not an impossible requirement as far as he was concerned. However, as is the case with all specialists he did not just play like that but prepared himself very conscientiously. The sketch leaves shown here, on which Beethoven not only made sketches but also notes for improvisation, bear witness to this. On leaf 3r Beethoven wrote "One only improvises if one does not pay attention to what one plays, so one would improvise best and most truly in public if one were left to one's own devices, to play whatever came into mind". However, this sounds like an ideal situation which will not always be the case. Thus Beethoven also wrote down a concept on the reverse of leaf 3v, for improvisation, "Lied variirt am Ende Fuge und mit pianissimo aufgehört [.] Auf diese Art jede Fantasie entworfen und hernach im Theater ausgeführt." ("Variations on a Lied, a fugue at the end and finishing pianissimo. Model every improvisation on this and perform it afterwards in the theatre".) In other words, what his contemporaries praised as free improvisation in public concerts was actually prepared at home in advance - even if this was only the framework which he then honed and filled in at the concert. (J.R.)