Reviews of Beethoven’s Works (1799, 1812)

The desire to push aesthetic boundaries was not confined to poetry during the romantic movement; music also became a powerful medium for reshaping European culture in this period. German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was extremely influential in this process because of his extraordinary musical diversity and creative imagination. The critical reception of Beethoven’s works allows us to see Beethoven through his contemporaries’ eyes. Some viewed his ability to defy traditional musical categories as a weakness; others, by contrast, praised it as the very embodiment of genius. This tension between old and new, past and present, reflected broader tensions within European society in the wake of the French Revolution and Napoleonic domination. The two reviews below appeared during Beethoven’s lifetime in the most influential music journal of the early nineteenth century, Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. Closely allied with the music scene in Vienna, the journal had a network of correspondents in hundreds of communities across Germany. Its success went hand in hand with the growth of the public’s interest in and availability of music concerts such as the ones reviewed here.

From The Critical Reception of Beethoven’s Compositions, vol. I, ed. and trans. Wayne M. Senner (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 142–143, 203.

Three Piano Sonatas in C Minor, F Major, and D Major (October 9, 1799)

It cannot be denied that Mr. v. B. is a man of genius, has originality, and goes entirely his own way. In addition, his unusual thoroughness in the higher manner of writing and his own extraordinary command of the instrument he writes for unquestionably assure him of his rank among the best keyboard composers and performers of our time. His abundance of ideas, which a striving genius usually is unable to constrain as soon as it seizes upon a subject suitable for representation, too often still causes him to pile up ideas without restraint and to arrange them by means of a bizarre manner so as to bring about an obscure artificiality or an artificial obscurity, which is disadvantageous rather than advantageous to the effect of the entire piece.

Fantasy such as Beethoven possesses in no common degree, supported especially by such excellent knowledge, is something very valuable and indeed indispensable for a composer who feels within himself the dedication to become a greater artist and who disdains superficial and conventional composition. Rather, he wants to put forth something that has an inner, powerful vitality, which entices the connoisseur to a more frequent repetition of his work. However, in all arts there is an overabundance that derives from a too great and frequent craving for effect and learnedness, just as there is a clarity and charm that can well exist in conjunction with any thoroughness and diversity of composition (this word is used entirely in the general artistic sense).

This reviewer, who after having attempted gradually to accustom himself to Beethoven’s manner, is beginning to value him more than before and cannot therefore suppress the wish that it might please this fanciful composer to allow himself to be guided throughout his works by a certain economy, which is, of course, more advantageous than the opposite. Indeed, this wish is intensified even more by the present work, which is clearer and therefore more beautiful than many of his other sonatas and remaining fortepiano pieces, although they do not thereby lose any of their thoroughness.

There are undoubtedly few artists to whom one must exclaim: save your treasures and be thrifty with them! For not many artists abound in ideas and are skilled in their combinations. It is therefore less a direct censure of Mr. v. B. here than a well-meant acclamation, which retains something honorable even if it does censure. . . .

News: Munich (February 19, 1812)

A Grand Symphony in D by Beethoven opened the first concert, given on 9 December. The works of this artist, unique in his own way, are as yet not well enough known here. People are accustomed to Haydn’s and Mozart’s works and should not be surprised if these rare products of Beethoven, which diverge so greatly from what is customary, don’t always produce their effect upon the listener. This is not the place to evaluate this manner of composition. However, that a glowing fantasy, a high flight of powerful and ingenious harmonies prevails in it throughout, is admitted even by those who hold clarity and songfulness to be the highest degree of art. Incidentally, the Andante of this symphony nevertheless leaves nothing left to be desired in this respect. Certainly, the minuet and the final Allegro have a very bizarre quality. However, when the humor of so many of our writers attracts us, why do we want to expect the composer, who lays claim to the entire as yet so little charted domain of music, to stick only to customary forms? Why do we expect him always only to flatter the ear, never to unsettle us, and raise us above the customary, even if somewhat forcefully?

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