Previously unknown Beethoven composer discovered
A previously unknown and unpublished piano piece by Ludwig van Beethoven was found by Jochen Reutter, editor-in-chief of Wiener Urtext Edition, during research in the music collection of the Vienna City Hall Library.
The work is notated on a double sheet of sketches by Ludwig van Beethoven from the years 1790 to 1792. At the end of the fourth page, a piano piece called Andante had already been discovered some time ago among the many different sketches. However, the fact that there is also a complete little piano piece on the first page had remained unknown until now. It has no title and does not begin at the beginning, but only towards the end of a line, immediately following a previous sketch, which makes it difficult to find.
As a previously unknown piece, it does not yet appear in the new catalog of works and has neither an opus number nor a WoO number. The musical character of the 16-bar piece is reminiscent of a Ländler. Beethoven recorded the melody part of his piece without any gaps, even revising it in a few places and notating the accompaniment in abbreviated form. The piece is published as the first edition of the Wiener Urtext Edition (UT 50296).
