Music for a Knights' ballet by Ferdinand von Waldstein for orchestra WoO 1

On the Sunday in the Carnival season, 6 March 1791, a 'characteristic ballet in old German costume' was performed in the Redoutensaal of Bonn Castle for the local nobility. The organiser of this amusement was Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, who was named in the 1792 theatre yearbook as the 'inventor of the same [...], who is to be congratulated on his composition of dance and music'. The ballet represented the 'main desires of our ancestors towards war, hunting, love and carousing'. If the theatre yearbook is to be believed, Count Waldstein produced the ballet on his own. But in fact he was aided by at least two others: the Aachen dance master Habich choreographed it and the young Ludwig van Beethoven wrote the music. We can no longer ascertain why Beethoven is not listed anywhere as the composer. A favourable theory is that some of the melodies and themes were by Waldstein and that Beethoven had freely stepped back as the composer as a favour to his patron. It was only Beethoven's childhood friend Wegeler who, in his Biographische Notizen, identified Beethoven as the composer of the music for the Ritterballet (Knights' Ballet), thus helping to set the record straight. (J.R.)