Chamber arrangements of Beethoven symphonies

[JAC6]

Hello. New member with a question.

The box set of Beethoven's piano concertos by Robert Levin and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique contains chamber arrangements of both the fourth piano concerto and the second symphony. (These were also released on a separate CD on Archiv Blue, I believe). The liner notes and some internet research suggest that chamber arrangements were not uncommon during the time of Beethoven in order to broaden the audience for the music and to accomodate smaller but more numerous chamber groups.

However, other than the Levin version of the second, I have not seen many recorded versions of Beethoven's symphonies in chamber arrangements. (I've seen reference to a chamber version of the fifth by Pro Arte Antiqua Praha, but it does not seem to be available in the US.) Hearing familiar works performed in this manner is intriguing.

Does anyone know more about this "chamber arrangement" practice? And are there more such recordings available, particularly on period instruments?

[Hofrat]

The practice of making arrangements of other composers works was a thriving business in Beethoven's time, and there was quite a market for them. There were composers who made a living out of making arrangements, and publishing houses flourished in this "no-man's land" of the music industry then, especially in an era without copyrights. I have a Naxos CD of music by Carl Khym (1770?-??) which are string quintet arrangements of Beethoven chamber works: Piano trio opus 1/2, clarinet trio opus 11, and horn sonata opus 17. If Beethoven sat down and wrote an arrangement of his own work, it was generally to combat a bad arrangement of his work by someone else which Beethoven thought reflected badly on his original work.

[Michael]

Barry Cooper brought out a revised edition of the Fourth Piano Concerto about fifteen years ago. He described it as Beethoven's final thoughts on the work but some musicologists were of the opinion that the changes came from the arrangement that B made for a chamber group.
(I'm just relying on memory here).
By the way, welcome JAC6!

[Hofrat]

It is my understanding that the score of the 4th piano concerto was published in August 1808, but not premiered until 22 December 1808. Czerny, who was at the premiere and knew the published work well, said that Beethoven played an "unbuttoned" version of the work, playing much more music than what was in the score. It was from this "unbuttoned" version that Cooper revised the 4th piano concerto.

[Rutradelusasa]

There is a new recording in MDG of Ries's version of the for piano trio. I don't think it's on period instruments, but coming from someone who was his pupil, and wrote in such a close style to his, I'd give it a try...

[JAC6]

Thanks for the interesting responses and the welcome.

For those who are interested, the liner notes the the Archiv Blue release of the Levin chamber arrangements of the fourth concerto and second symphony (by Ingo Harden) state:

... The present recording of two well-known works by Beethoven affords an example of ... [a] practice that was once very common: that of transcribing large-scale orchestral works for chamber resources. This was a popular practice during the Classical era, when successful new symphonies or concertos were offered for sale by publishers in all manner of additional arrangements suitable for performance within a domestic setting, not only in the form of piano reductions, but also in transcriptions ranging from duets to septets and even nonets. Most of these arrangements were the work not of the composers themselves but of arrangers who specialized in this task. But in the case of Beethoven's Symphony no. 2 in D major op. 36 we have an "authentic" arangement that Beethoven himself prepared soon after the first performance of the symphony in 1803. Whereas the majority of these transcriptions were intended on the whole to insure a wider and quicker distribution of the music, the chamber version of the Fourth Piano Concerto in G major op. 58 that was recently rediscovered and reconstructed by Hans-Werner Kuthen seems to have been intended primarily for the private use of Prince Lobowitz, one of Beethoven's music-loving patrons in whose town mansion the concerto had first been heard in its original orchestral version in March 1807. Beethoven was involved in this transcription too. Although he entrusted a tried-and-tested acquaintance, the court violinist Franz Alexander Possinger, with the task of reducing the orchestral lines to five-part strings (two violins, two violas and cello), he himself reworked the piano part and in the outer movements alone changed more than eighty passages in order to bring it into line with the new sororities, while at the same time considerably increasing the virtuoso demands on the soloist....

[Hofrat]

Arrangements were the "cash cows" of the publishers in Beethoven's time. Publishers were usually limited by contract as to how many copies they could print (Beethoven was constantly fighting with publishers who would spin off "extra copies" of his works). But with an arrangement, the publisher was free to print as many copies as he wanted and totally circumvent the composer. Remember, no copyrights yet!!

[Hofrat]

Not only was symphonic music arranged for chamber ensembles, chamber music itself was arranged. In the early 1800's, Beethoven's Septet was so popular in Stockholm that Berhard Crusell arranged it for winds and brass only (flute, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, and serpent).

[JAC6]

It is interesting that there are so few chamber arrangement recordings available. It seems like there would be an interest in these sorts of recordings given the popularity of historically informed performances and such. Plus, it is interesting to hear familiar music in a new and different way. And, of course, there's the popularity of Beethoven generally.

[Hofrat]

It is a question of supply and demand. In Beethoven's time, arrangements were in high demand because there was no way to record. Today, with recordings affordable to virtually everyone, there is no demand for arrangements.

[JAC6]

I'm not sure about that. I would think that there would be some demand for all things relating to Beethoven, particularly the versions of his work that were frequently played during his era. Given the falling costs of recording and distributing music these days, one would think that this would be a niche that someone could fill with some interesting chamber versions. (At this point, I think a well-played chamber version of Beethoven's symphonies or concertos might add to the existing catalog more than, for example, the 231st recording of one of the symphonies.)

The evidence, of course, strongly suggests I'm wrong. Or, perhaps just ahead of my time.

[JAC6]

I found a link to the first movement of the Fifth Symphony arranged for a quintet performed by Pro Arte Antiqua Praha here.

[Hofrat]

Hi JAC6;

The string quintet was a favorite ensemble for arrangements in Beethoven's time according to the CD notes in the recording of the arrangements of various Beethoven chamber works.

But if you want arrangements, Pleyel is your man. A great example is his symphony in A (Benton 137). Not only was it published over 10 times by as many publishers during Pleyel's life, it appeared in the following arrangements:
string quartet, string trio, 12 duos for winds or strings, 25 duos for keyboard and string/wind, duo for guitar and violin, piano 4-hands, and solo piano. I refer you to the thematic catalog of Pleyel's music by the late Rita Benton.

As I said before, arrangements were a flourishing business.

[JAC6]

Thanks. I'll look into him.

However, my primary interest in this thread was why there aren't more chamber arrangements of Beethoven's symphonies and concertos. What with the historically informed practice movement and the great interest in Beethoven generally, it surprises me that there aren't more recordings available. I would have thought that people would be very interested in hearing some of the most frequently recorded pieces of music in the classical genre in new and different arrangements for smaller ensembles, particularly since that seems to be that way that many of his contemporaries heard them performed.

I'm still stumped.

[Hofrat]

As I said before, arrangements were a flourishing business. The only reason Beethoven wrote some of his own arrangements was to combat the myriad of bad arrangements that were floating around that he through threatened the artistry of the original work. There were lots of them, but in many cases they were in very limited published editions or in handwritten manuscript form.