Beethoven's Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World

by Marc D. Moskovitz, R. Larry Todd

Overview

Beethoven's Cello is the ideal companion for cellists, pianists, musicologists and chamber-music devotees desiring a comprehensive understanding of this beloved repertoire.

Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award

In 1796 the young Beethoven presented his first two cello sonatas, Op. 5, at the court of Frederick William II, an avid cellist and the reigning Prussian monarch. Released in print the next year, these revolutionary sonatas forever altered the cello repertoire by fundamentally redefining the relationship between the cello and the piano and promoting their parity. Beethoven continued to develop the potential of the duo partnership in his three other cello sonatas - the lyrical and heroic Op. 69 and the two experimental sonatas Op. 102, No. 1 and No. 2, transcendent compositions conceived on the threshold of the composer's late style.
In Beethoven's Cello, Marc D. Moskovitz and R. Larry Todd examine these seminal cornerstones of the cello repertoire and place them within their historical and cultural contexts. Also addressed arethe three variation sets and, in a series of interludes, the cellos owned by Beethoven, the changing nature of his pianos, the cello-centric 'Triple' Concerto and the arrangements for cello and piano of other works. Featuring a preface by renowned cellist Steven Isserlis and concluding with the reviews of the composer's cello music published during his lifetime, Beethoven's Cello is the ideal companion for cellists, pianists, musicologists and chamber-music devotees desiring a comprehensive understanding of this beloved repertoire.

MARC D. MOSKOVITZ is principal cellist of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded the music of virtuoso cellists David Popperand Alfredo Piatti for the VAI label, and his American premiere of Zemlinsky's Cello Sonata was heralded by the Washington Post as 'an impassioned performance'. Moskovitz has contributed to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians; and his biography, Alexander Zemlinsky: A Lyric Symphony, was published by Boydell & Brewer in 2010.

Recognized as 'Mendelssohn's most authoritative biographer' (The New Yorker), R. LARRY TODD is Arts and Sciences Professor at Duke University. He is the author of Mendelssohn: A Life in Music, named Best Biography in 2003 by the Association of American Publishers, and Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn, awarded the ASCAP Nicholas Slonimsky Award for outstanding biography in music. As a pianist, he has recorded with Nancy Green the complete cello works of Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel for JRI Recordings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783272372
Publisher:	BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date:	10/20/2017
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

MARC D. MOSKOVITZ is the author of Alexander Zemlinsky: A Lyric Symphony and co-author of Beethoven's Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World, both published by the Boydell Press. He has contributed program notes to orchestras and opera houses in the United States, Germany, Spain and China and entries for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. A dedicated teacher and performer, Moskovitz also serves as principal cellist of the ProMusica Columbus Chamber Orchestra.

Table of Contents

Illustrations viii

Foreword Steven Isserlis ix

Preface xi

Personalia xv

1 From Bonn to Berlin 1

2 Music Fit for a King: The Sonata in F major Op. 5 No. 1 (1796) 20

Interlude: Beethoven's Cellos 42

3 Tragic/Comic Masks: The Sonata in G minor Op. 5 No. 2 (1796) 51

Interlude: Beethoven's Pianos 67

4 Themes and Variations 76

Interlude: The Triple Concerto as Outlier 94

5 Friendship, War, Tears, and Grief: The Sonata in A major Op. 69 (1808) 100

6 Freedom and Control: The Sonata in C major Op. 102 No. 1 (1815) 125

7 'Most Remarkable and Strange': The Sonata in D major Op. 102 No. 2 (1815) 146

Interlude: Arranged Sonatas 170

8 Opus Posthumum 175

Appendix 1 Primary Sources of Beethoven's Music for Cello and Piano 193

Appendix 2 Reviews of Beethoven's Cello Music by His Contemporaries 197

Notes 203

Bibliography 228

Index of Works by Beethoven 239

General Index 244

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award

.

It's hard to envision a more comprehensive single-volume introduction to Beethoven and the cello, and performers, listeners and researchers will all find something to engage them here...what's clear throughout is that Moskovitz and Todd genuinely love this music, and send you back to it with renewed enthusiasm.

GRAMOPHONE

A remarkably fine book which will likely become the definitive reference for cellists, scholars and serious Beethoven devotees.

STRINGENDO AUSTA NATIONAL JOURNAL

Although [Beethoven's five] sonatas [for cello and piano] are a core part of the repertoire, they never seem to receive their due as startlingly innovative efforts that are also remarkably successful as music. The book is a welcome corrective and tells something like the whole story of these pieces: how and why they came to be, how they work, where they reside within Beethoven's output. . . . The authors' scholarship is extensive, authoritative, and absolutely current, and for once, there is enough space for a thorough look. No other single source on Beethoven's cello music lives in the same universe as this beautifully composed volume. . . . Essential.

CHOICE

Beethoven's Cello is not only thoroughly researched and documented, its engaging writing style is more readable than that of the typical academic music book. The authors' theoretical analysis and historical insights will be of practical use to performers. . . . Boydell Press has produced an attractive volume, beautifully laid out, with many illustrations, that makes a meaningful contribution to general Beethoven scholarship.

FANFARE

An impressive piece of scholarship . . . a work of thoroughness and quality.

STRINGS MAGAZINE

Winner of the 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award

Although [Beethoven's five] sonatas [for cello and piano] are a core part of the repertoire, they never seem to receive their due as startlingly innovative efforts that are also remarkably successful as music. The book is a welcome corrective and tells something like the whole story of these pieces: how and why they came to be, how they work, where they reside within Beethoven's output. . . . The authors' scholarship is extensive, authoritative, and absolutely current, and for once, there is enough space for a thorough look. No other single source on Beethoven's cello music lives in the same universe as this beautifully composed volume. . . . Essential. CHOICE

A remarkably fine book which will likely become the definitive reference for cellists, scholars and serious Beethoven devotees. STRINGENDO AUSTA NATIONAL JOURNAL

It's hard to envision a more comprehensive single-volume introduction to Beethoven and the cello, and performers, listeners and researchers will all find something to engage them here...what's clear throughout is that Moskovitz and Todd genuinely love this music, and send you back to it with renewed enthusiasm. GRAMOPHONE

Beethoven's Cello is not only thoroughly researched and documented, its engaging writing style is more readable than that of the typical academic music book. The authors' theoretical analysis and historical insights will be of practical use to performers. . . . Boydell Press has produced an attractive volume, beautifully laid out, with many illustrations, that makes a meaningful contribution to general Beethoven scholarship. FANFARE

An impressive piece of scholarship . . . a work of thoroughness and quality. STRINGS MAGAZINE

From the Publisher