USA: Recently rediscovered Beethoven manuscript valued at roughly two million U.S. dollars to be auctioned at Sotheby's in December

Record ID: 643659

  • Title: USA: Recently rediscovered Beethoven manuscript valued at roughly two million U.S. dollars to be auctioned at Sotheby's in December
  • Date: 17th November 2005
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MANUSCRIPT FOR FOUR HANDS VERSION OF THE GROSSE FUGE
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVA8TWI1U48L6EV8X9PABMZA27H8
  • Story Text: A unique manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven that was lost for more than a century will go on sale in London in December priced at roughly two million U.S. dollars. Discovered in July at the bottom of a dusty filing cabinet at a religious school in Philadelphia, the manuscript is a work in progress for the composer's Grosse Fuge in B flat major, one of his most revolutionary works. According to Stephen Roe, the head of Sotheby's Europe book department, the manuscript was only known from a brief description in a catalogue in 1890 and it has never before been seen or described by Beethoven scholars. "There hasn't been an autograph of Beethoven of this size on the market possibly since 1890, so it is really unique. So we'll have to see what happens on the day but I wouldn't be surprised if that was exceeded," said Roe. Not only is the 80-page document a working manuscript for the only piano version of a major work by Beethoven, it is one of his few compositions for a piano duet. Sotheby's, which will auction the document on December 1, said it was the most important Beethoven manuscript to have come to market in living memory and would prompt a complete reassessment of his works. It is the second time very rare musical documents have been found by chance at the former Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, now renamed the Palmer Theological Seminary. A Mozart manuscript was discovered there in 1990. The German composer who continued to work as he went slowly deaf, wrote the work in 1826 , one year before his death, as the finale for his String Quartet in B flat major. The piece is notoriously difficult to perform and, because it was musically far ahead of its time, did not immediately sit well with audiences either. The manuscript is written in brown and black ink and includes annotations in pencil and red crayon. Music scholars have welcomed it as breath of fresh air, clearly illustrating the working methods and thought processes of a musical genius. "In the more impassioned bits of the piece the handwriting gets bigger and in a sense the handwriting gets louder, and in the quieter bits or more subdued bits the handwriting gets smaller. It's very interesting to see how he writes, he's obviously carried along by the music," Said Roe. The document contains multiple deletions and corrections and has places where the paper is rubbed through as Beethoven continuously tried and rejected different variations. Because it is so obviously a working document, it is not easy to read and has no printer's marks. Sotheby's said it was clear this was not the finished version and as such would give deep insight when compared with the published work. The path of ownership is murky, but it was last at auction in 1890, first in Paris in May of that year and then again in Berlin in October from where it is believed it was taken to the United States and lost to view until July this year. Sotheby's has valued the Beethoven manuscript at between 1.7 to 2.6 million U.S. dollars. Also in the London sale are manuscripts and letters associated with various classical composers. The autographed manuscript of Robert Schumann's Second Symphony is one of those works. It is an almost continuous first draft of the entire work and according to Sotheby's the final symphony score differs little from this document. Two letters from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are also for sale, including a letter written by both Mozart and his mother to his father Leopold, during a journey to Paris. The estimate for this item is valued at 170,000 to 260,000 U.S. dollars. Another letter to be auctioned is one written by Mozart to his father where he mentions his first serious love interest, Alyosia Weber and talks about some of his compositions. That is estimated at 69,000 to 104,000 U.S. dollars.
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