1841

One of the efforts to raise funds for the monument included sale of this album published in 1841 in Vienna by P. Mechetti containing piano works by eleven composers. This publisher’s presentation copy contains a frontispiece illustration of a monument by J.N. Geiger and drawings of Beethoven’s birthplace, the Schwarzspanierhaus where he died in Vienna in 1827, and a drawing of his tombstone. In the spirit of tribute to Beethoven, Liszt offered a pianoforte arrangement of the funeral march from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony that he had completed around 1837. However, in a letter to Marie d’Agoult from November 13, 1841, Liszt expressed his dismay over some of the banal and trivial works that were included in the album, a title and concept he detested. “If Beethoven were alive,” Liszt wrote, “he would give us contributors an enormous kick in the rear.” He insisted that, if Mechetti had entrusted him with the project, the results would have been different. Indeed, most of the other works in the Album were light pieces or “morceaux brillants” intended for amateurs. In addition to Liszt’s piano transcription and the first edition of Mendelssohn's Variations serieuses, the album contains works by several of the other leading virtuoso pianists of the mid-nineteenth century, including Chopin, Czerny, Doehler, Henselt, Kalbrenner, Moscheles, Taubert, and Thalberg. The Album-Beethoven, which appeared in a limited special edition of 500 copies, was sold only in Germany. The Beethoven Center owns one of the few surviving copies.

mid 19th century

This work is in the public domain and therefore the digital images attached to this catalog record may be used without permission. Credit statements for these images should read From the collections of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San José State University. For information on obtaining higher resolution reproductions and permission to publish, see the Beethoven Center's website https://www.sjsu.edu/beethoven/collection/library-materials/index.php