Congratulations menu
Beethoven every Friday: to mark his 250th birthday, we take a look at one of his works every week. Today on the congratulatory minuet in E flat major for orchestra.
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Happy birthday Mr. Beethoven! What would the master say if he found out about all the concerts and festivals, congresses and celebratory lectures planned in his honor for 2020? He would probably be surprised at the matter-of-factness with which posterity is celebrating his 250th birthday - or rather the 250th year of his birth. Because exactly when Little Ludwig saw the light of day remains a mystery. The only certainty is the entry in the baptismal register of St. Remigius in Bonn on December 17, 1770.
The birth had most likely been the day before, December 16; due to the high infant mortality rate at the time, baptisms were usually held immediately the next day. Beethoven himself probably regarded the 16th as his birthday, and this was also known to his immediate circle. This can be seen from a letter from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, who expressly wrote on December 15, 1795 to the "tomorrow's name festival" congratulated her - but of course meant her birthday.
What is astonishing, however, is that Beethoven was unclear about his year of birth for a long time, which meant that his age was not exactly certain either: his father had announced him as being two years younger at his first public appearances (1778 as the age of "6 years") - an entry which continued in the following years and was still quite common in the 19th century. After Beethoven had requested a copy of the baptismal register in Bonn in the spring of 1810 (the family register had been lost), he even corrected "1770" to "1772". The error must have been resolved in the following years; in any case, the correct age is given in the obituary.
However, Beethoven is unlikely to have celebrated a real birthday in any year: The day that is so important today only acquired its significance at a later date, when the church name day was replaced by the secular birthday. In this respect, it will come as no surprise to find only one serenade in Beethoven's instrumental music: the Congratulations menu WoO 3 was first performed on November 3, 1822 at an ambitious open-air serenade on the eve of the name day of Karl Friedrich Hensler (1759-1825), the director of the Josephstadt Theater.
This was even discussed in the Wiener allgemeine Theaterzeitung reported - albeit with a misunderstood ennoblement of the minuet: "... As soon as Mr. Hensler had entered his apartment, the entire orchestra personnel began the beautiful overture by Kapellmeister Prof. Drechsler under the windows on the street ..., This was followed by an excellently played flute concerto, followed by a very good overture by Mr. Kapellmeister Gläser, and finally a simphony, magnificently newly composed for this evening by Ludwig van Beethoven sic." The finale was a march and chorus from Mozart's opera Titus with newly underlaid text.
Even if the book, written in a light hand and first published in 1832 under the neutral title Allegretto printed Congratulations menu may be largely unknown today, even among connoisseurs, individual harmonic twists and turns as well as the instrumentation unmistakably reveal the true master.
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