Beethoven Archive

Early sketches for the Beethoven symphony #6 date from 1802, though its actual composition waited until the summers of 1807 and 1808, which Beethoven spent in the village of Heiligenstadt. In that rural retreat, a …

I read somewhere that the key of A-Flat was the key of consolation. And from the collection of 32 sonatas by Beethoven, the composer’s #31 is a wonderful example of that statement. The first movement …

The opening movement of the Beethoven quartet Op. 59 No. 2 announces its compositional ambition with a symphonic call to attention and a charged silence, before launching into a dense and nervous exposition of remarkably …

Although most of Beethoven’s piano sonatas are cast in three or four movements, this piece consists of just two movements. Both are provided with performance instructions in German. Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung und …

Beethoven was at the end of his life when he wrote the A minor quartet, also known as the Heiliger Dankgesang quartet, one of his several late quartets. It was composed in 1825, just two …