Eleven Bagatelles for piano op. 119
Listening samples
Composition
1820-22
Today the Eleven Bagatelles op. 119 are gathered together under a single opus number. Yet Beethoven neither wrote nor planned them as a cycle: rather, op. 119 is a free combination of old and new pieces that could hardly be more disparate.
From early 1820 onwards, Beethoven occasionally contributed short pieces to Friedrich Starke's piano tutor Wiener Pianoforte-Schule. For Part II of his tutor, published in June 1820, the composer added fingering and performance marks to the second and fourth movements of his Piano Sonata op. 28. For Part III, published one year later, he composed five short pieces that he called 'bagatelles'. These pieces later became nos. 7 to 11 of the Bagatelles op. 119. In the preface to his tutor Starke commented: 'Although these pieces are called 'bagatelles', each of their movements expresses not only the particular genius of the famous master but also offers the player plenty of learning opportunities as one needs to fully understand the composition'.'
Nos. 1 to 6 have a different origin, and their history only began when op. 119 was compiled. In the early 1820s Beethoven was placed in great financial distress by sickness, inability to work and drawn-out lawsuits. An inquiry from the publisher Carl Friedrich Peters of Leipzig in May 1822 was thus most welcome. Peters asked him for compositions in almost any genre, including solo pieces for piano and short works. The publisher's inquiry led to a long correspondence in which, among other pieces, Beethoven offered him four bagatelles, adding two more to his offer in December 1822. Peters duly received the bagatelles in mid-February 1823. But Beethoven had partly chosen older pieces from the 1790s, and Peters rejected them, arguing that he did not want to court the danger of being accused of falsely attributing them to Beethoven, as not many people would believe they were from his pen. Although Peters had asked the composer for short pieces, he considered the ones delivered too short.
Together with his brother Johann, to whom Beethoven had ceded the pieces as a security on a loan, the composer tried to find another publisher - in vain. Only his former student Ferdinand Ries in London managed to sell the six bagatelles for Peters, and the five for Starke, as a collection of eleven 'trifles' to the London publisher Clementi. The bagatelles received their first opus number from the Parisian publisher Schlesinger, who issued them in December 1823 as op. 112 (following on the piano sonatas opp. 109 – 111, which he had also published). It was not until 1851 that Breitkopf & Härtel assigned them the opus number 119. (J.R.)
From early 1820 onwards, Beethoven occasionally contributed short pieces to Friedrich Starke's piano tutor Wiener Pianoforte-Schule. For Part II of his tutor, published in June 1820, the composer added fingering and performance marks to the second and fourth movements of his Piano Sonata op. 28. For Part III, published one year later, he composed five short pieces that he called 'bagatelles'. These pieces later became nos. 7 to 11 of the Bagatelles op. 119. In the preface to his tutor Starke commented: 'Although these pieces are called 'bagatelles', each of their movements expresses not only the particular genius of the famous master but also offers the player plenty of learning opportunities as one needs to fully understand the composition'.'
Nos. 1 to 6 have a different origin, and their history only began when op. 119 was compiled. In the early 1820s Beethoven was placed in great financial distress by sickness, inability to work and drawn-out lawsuits. An inquiry from the publisher Carl Friedrich Peters of Leipzig in May 1822 was thus most welcome. Peters asked him for compositions in almost any genre, including solo pieces for piano and short works. The publisher's inquiry led to a long correspondence in which, among other pieces, Beethoven offered him four bagatelles, adding two more to his offer in December 1822. Peters duly received the bagatelles in mid-February 1823. But Beethoven had partly chosen older pieces from the 1790s, and Peters rejected them, arguing that he did not want to court the danger of being accused of falsely attributing them to Beethoven, as not many people would believe they were from his pen. Although Peters had asked the composer for short pieces, he considered the ones delivered too short.
Together with his brother Johann, to whom Beethoven had ceded the pieces as a security on a loan, the composer tried to find another publisher - in vain. Only his former student Ferdinand Ries in London managed to sell the six bagatelles for Peters, and the five for Starke, as a collection of eleven 'trifles' to the London publisher Clementi. The bagatelles received their first opus number from the Parisian publisher Schlesinger, who issued them in December 1823 as op. 112 (following on the piano sonatas opp. 109 – 111, which he had also published). It was not until 1851 that Breitkopf & Härtel assigned them the opus number 119. (J.R.)
