On Wed, 1 Jun 2016 20:45:38 +0200, J. Claudio Di Veroli <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Tilman wrote:
>>Beethoven's Broadwood is in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. In
>Bonn there's a Graf that was lent to Beethoven in his final years.
>
>Hi Tilman.
>
>My information is supported by the Beethoven-Haus Bonn webpage (and others):
>
>http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/sixcms/list.php?page=museum_internetausste
>llung_seiten_en&sv%5binternetausstellung.id%5d=31570&skip=9
As it says on that very page, Beethoven's piano went via Spina and Liszt to the Hungarian National Museum where it still is. About the Bonn instrument, they say: "The displayed instrument, constructed in the same way, is owned by the Beethoven-Haus" so it's a similar Broadwood but not Beethoven's.
>On the other hand, other webpages show pictures of an identical instrument
>reported indeed to be in the Hungarian National Museum, as you say, but I
>could not verify this in the Museum's webpage.
But it's common knowledge. And rest assured, I have done my research. Take my word for verification.
>Different webpages refer to Beethoven's letter of 1718, but they variously
>locate it either in Bonn or in Budapest. The pictures I found online are
>identical.
1718? Wow. 1817, still; Beethoven wrote a whole bunch of letters in that year. Not sure which you mean.
>The inevitable conclusion is that either the piano has moved between museum
>or there are actually two identical extant Broadwoods made in 1817, each one
>purported to be Beethoven's one.
No that is not the conclusion. The conclusion is that Beethoven's Broadwood is in Budapest and that one of the various other Broadwood from around 1817 with the same compass is in Bonn, properly identified as an instrument that's similar but not the same one. By the way, Chris Maene has at least made two modern copies, and as it happens I'm assistant researcher working together with Tom Beghin at the Orpheus institute on these (and other) Beethoven pianos.
>
>I do not understand your objection: I did not write "much larger" which
>would be wrong, but just "significantly larger", because a Broadwood going
>down to CC is both wider and longer than an earlier one going down to FF.
I see what you mean. My idea was mostly that "significant" would imply that we know "significant to something or other". Beethoven did occasionally use these low notes, but (also "significant") the first time he did so, in Op. 101, the piano he was aiming at (via his dedicatee, Frau von Ertmann) was a 6 1/2-octave Streicher. Later in the Broadwood time, he was much more cautious exploring the low half octave. Perhaps for reasons of making his scores interesting for more customers who knows. In Op. 110, for instance, you simply can leave out the low octave in the fugue, no harm done.
Etc. Long story as said.
Tilman
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask] saying HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
|
