I am not a fluent German speaker or reader. I simply repeat from the texts provided by Zimmer which speak for themselves. The cantata shown to Haydn in December 1790 is described by Franz Wegeler as having -
'SEVERAL SECTIONS SO DIFFICULT THAT SOME MUSICIANS DECLARED THEY COULD NOT POSSIBLY PLAY THEM. AS A RESULT, THE PERFORMANCE WAS CANCELLLED'
If you believe this cantata (SINGULAR) is either WoO87 or WoO88 why can't you identify which is was ?
Secondly, from Simrock -
'A CANTATA WHICH WE DID REHEARSE SEVERAL TIMES.....WE HAD ALL MANNER OF PROTESTS OVER THE DIFFICULT PLACES BEFORE US AND HE ASSERTED THAT EACH PLAYER MUST BE ABLE TO PERFORM HIS PART CORRECTLY'
This is indisputable evidence of virtuosity being asked of these musicians. It is evidence that this virtuosity is not confined to any one instrument but to each part.
And Simrock continues -
'(WE) PROVED WE COULDN'T, SIMPLY BECAUSE ALL THE FIGURES WERE COMPLETELY UNUSUAL, THEREIN LAY THE DIFFICULTY'.
Again, I ask you Peter, which part of WoO87 or WoO88 matches this description. None whatsoever.
But let me continue still more -
'Father Reis, who was the Leader in Mergentheim, declared EARNESTLY, that THIS WAS ALSO HIS OPINION, and so it was not performed at court AND WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING MORE OF IT SINCE'.
I again ask you to identify which of these two cantatas, WoO87 or WoO88 this can possibly be describing ? You refuse to give me a straight answer.
Let me end by repeating this -
'and so it was not peformed at court AND WE HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING MORE OF IT SINCE'.
Now, you can convince yourself if you please. But the simple facts remain. Neither of these two cantatas WoO87 or WoO88 can have been the piece being described here. It's absurd to suggest otherwise.
If these reports are believed by you it is important that you tell us plainly, which of the two cantatas these reports are speaking about - since you know, I know, and everybody else knows that no such technical demands are made of either musicians or singers in either of these two cantatas. But if you go round in circles on this issue you are left with admitting that neither cantata matches these two independent descriptions of the Beethoven cantata - the one showed to Haydn.
Furthermore, if Beethoven had been commissioned to write either WoO87 or WoO88 (for which there is no evidence whatsoever) there would be in the possession of the Bonn Reading Society such a work. There is not. There never has been. And it is a blatant lie to insist that the facts say otherwise.
By June of 1790 Beethoven had written a piece of music related to the death of Joseph. That is fact. By December of 1790 he had shown a cantata to Haydn. That is fact. The same cantata was declared unplayable at Mergentheim - a fact confirmed by several witnesses. You are now left with either WoO87 or WoO88. That is the choice you will not or cannot make since you know that whatever choice you make would be absurd.
The 19 year old Beethoven wrote a cantata. It was neither of the above. And that is my final word on this subject. That work and the material in Beethoven's possession at the time of his death are either fragments of that cantata or are forms of it which will in time prove the existence of such a third work. The evidence is entirely pointing in this direction.
Whether manuscripts were on sale in 1813 or not (which is 12 years after the death of Luchesi) begs the question of which manuscripts they were, to whom they were attributed, and where they now are. But they in no way free you from answering the question of the cantata Beethoven showed to Hadyn in December 1790.
Robert Newman (de la Touche)
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