VOL. XLIV, No.

40Bk.

OCTOBER, 1958

THE MUSICAL QUARTERLY

BEETHOVEN AND THE FRENCH VIOLIN SCHOOL
By BORIS SCHWARZ EETHOVEN'S early contact with French music left an indelible imprint on his style. While Haydn was homespun, while Mozart was oriented towards Italy, Beethoven's most important foreign influence came from France. Although transmuted and thoroughly absorbed, this influence remained with him through life; it can be traced from early pieces composed in Bonn to the Ninth Symphony. In Bonn as well as in Vienna, Beethoven's preoccupation with French music was at times quite intense. During his adolescent years in Bonn, he became thoroughly acquainted with the repertory of the pre-revolutionary opera comique. After coming to Vienna, he showed a lively interest in the latest works of the French school, the lyric dramas of the 179O's, which served as his models for Fidelio. His personal contacts with French artiststhe violinists Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, and Pierre Baillotgave him an insight into the high standards of violin virtuosity and the style of the so-called French Violin Concerto. The visit of Luigi Cherubini, who came to Vienna in 1805 as a recognized master of the French operatic style, brought Beethoven face to face with the musician he respected most among his contemporaries. In Beethoven's time, French composers excelled not only in the field of opera but in a specific area of instrumental musicthe violin conCopyright, 1958, by G. Schinner, Inc.

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certo. Even before 1780, the French violin school had reached high standards, exemplified by the works of Jean-Marie Leclair and Pierre Gavinies, but the Italian school represented by Giuseppe Tartini and Pietro Locatelli was considered supreme. The situation changed drastically with the arrival in Paris of Giovanni Battista Viotti, an Italian violinist schooled by Gaetano Pugnani. In 1782, Viotti made his debut at the Concert Spirituel in one of his own concertos. Neither as virtuoso nor as composer did he enjoy instantaneous success; there was some objection to a style designed "more to astonish than to please." l The mutual rapprochement, however, was rapid; barely a year later, in April 1783, the Mercure de France reported: "Viotti was received with the most merited enthusiasm, and it seems that the artists begin to forgive him for not being born in France." For ten years, until 1792, Viotti lived in Parisperforming,* composing, teaching, and conducting. So strong was his influence, so unique were his accomplishments as violinist and as composer for his instrument, that he brought about a complete regeneration of French violin art. Again, as with Lully, Gluck, and Cherubini, we see a foreign musician combine his native heritage so skillfully with French tradition and taste that the result is acclaimed by the French as their own product. Viotti's concept of the violin concertoan imaginative fusion of Italian, French, and German elementswas eagerly absorbed and developed by his French disciples and ultimately became known as the French Violin Concerto. A vast new repertory was createdViotti alone composed twenty-nine concertos, Kreutzer nineteen, Rode thirteen, Baillot nine. By 1800, the older concerto repertory was obliterated, and the concerto of the Parisian school reigned supreme as the model of its kind. In Paris, this tradition became so ingrained that until 1853 (with one exception in 1845) no concertos other than Viotti's were used in the public contests of the Conservatoire. Viotti's French disciples were not only prolific composers but also superb virtuosos and conscientious teachers. As indefatigable travelers, they carried the fame of the French school throughout Europe. The luster of that school was dimmed only temporarily by the meteoric appearance of Paganini. The Viotti tradition was perpetuated when his three most
Pierre Baillot, Notice sur Viotti, Paris, 1825. After a last appearance on Sept. 8, 1783, Viotti retired from the Concert Spirituel and was heard thereafter only at private concerts. He resumed his concert career in 1792 at London, where he performed his own concertos at the Salomon concerts, side by side with Haydn.
2 1

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prominent disciplesRode, Kreutzer, and Baillotwere appointed to the faculty of the newly founded Conservatoire (1795); they were also put in charge of writing the official violin method, which appeared in 1803. The result was a unique homogeneity of French violin-playing which was reflected in the superlative standards of Parisian orchestras. The fame of the Conservatoire orchestraat that time a student ensemble reinforced by a few alumnireached Beethoven, who said to Baron de Tremont in 1809, "I should like to hear Mozart's symphonies in Paris; I am told that they are played better at the Conservatoire than anywhere else."3 The same orchestra had played Beethoven's First Symphony in 1807 and 1808, the first performances of any of his orchestral works in Paris. The violin concertos of Viotti began to be published in Paris in 1782, though some were composed earlier. By 1792, he had completed twenty concertos which achieved wide circulation; by 1800, "in Vienna and St. Petersburg, in London and Paris, everyone played Viotti." * In 1785 or 1786 5 Viotti's Concerto No. 16 was performed in Vienna at one of the subscription concerts of Mozart, who enlarged the original orchestration by adding trumpets and timpani.6 At about the same time, Mozart composed a piano concerto (K. 467) with a pronounced march-like pulsation in the first movement. This idealized march character was the hallmark of the "French" Viotti concerto, and Einstein maintains that Mozart "simply transferred Viotti's concept from the violin to the piano concerto." 7 Actually, Mozart had used "military" concerto themes before any of Viotti's works were published, for example in the Violin Concerto in D major, K. 218, written at Salzburg in 1775. Its principal theme is practically identical with the opening of Viotti's Concerto No. 2, published in 1782.
3

O. G. Sonneck, Beethoven, Impressions of Contemporaries, New York, 1926,

p. 73. A Schering, Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts, Leipzig, 1905, p. 204. The year is not clearly established. Alfred Einstein, in Essays on Music, New York, 1956, p. 245, gives 1783, which is obviously an error. In Kochel-Einstein (3rd ed., p. 594) we find the year 1785. Wyzewa and Saint-Foix assume 1786. All are at variance with the latest chronological listing of Viotti's works in Remo Giazotto, G. B. Viotti, Milan, 1956, where the Concerto No! 16 is listed as having been composed in 1789. Kochel 470a. Whether Mozart's Andante K.470 (now lost) was meant to replace. Viotti's original slow movement is not established. 7 Essays on Music, p. 245.
5 4

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Ex.

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1 M<raaH:ViolinGonce+o inD, K.2l8(l77S)

Viotti, Violin Concerto No.2,(l782)

|j

rj-^|f

"'4^

This curious coincidence strengthens the belief that both Mozart and Viotti were stimulated by earlier French concertos in which the march ritornel occurred frequently.8 Perhaps less coincidental is a striking similarity between a phrase in the opening tutti of Viotti's Concerto No. 7 (1784) and Mozart's Symphony in G minor (1788); it supports Einstein's opinion that Mozart "knew and valued Viotti's work." 9
Ex.2 Viotti: Concert No 7 (1784)

Mozart: Symphony in G minor (1788)

M^rr^iTflJCCCP

ty

| i ' i [* | ' 'ft i-"T^ 7 fJ r*r I '

As for the "military" concerto movement, Viotti was clearly not its originator, nor did he use it as unequivocally as his French disciples, notably Kreutzer. Einstein's statement that "there is hardly one among his twenty-nine concertos that does not have all the characteristics of such an ideal march" 10 is certainly far too broad. Actually, Viotti's musical temperament tended towards lyricism, which is apparent in his earliest "Italian" concerto (published as No. 3 in 1782 at Paris but composed before his arrival in France) and in the nine "London" concertos (Nos. 21 to 29), written after 1792. Only Viotti's Parisian concertos (Nos. 4 through 20, possibly also Nos. 1 and 2) u show an inclination towards first movements with a military pulse, the "contribution of French genius to European music";12 but even here there are many exceptions.
Abert's statement (Mozart, I, 509) that the French violin concerto "under Viotti" influenced Mozart's violin concertos, is a chronological impossibility as far as Viotti is concerned. 9 A. Einstein, Mozart, New York, 1945, p. 282. 10 Ibid., p. 305. '? The chronology of Viotti's earliest concertos is not entirely clarified, despite the efforts of Giazotto {op. cit.). See also E. Chappell White, G. B. Viotti and His Violin Concertos (dissertation, Princeton Univ., 1957). 12 Einstein, Essays, p. 247.
8

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Proceeding from the fact that Mozart's piano concertos were published later than the violin concertos of Viotti, Einstein makes the following bold statement, "It was from Viotti, and presumably not from Mozart, that Beethoven derived the idea of a 'military' first movement for all his concertos." 13 While this seems a circuitous way, one must keep in mind the victorious sweep of the French concerto. By 1795, when Beethoven began his Piano Concerto in B-flat, Op. 19, the Viotti concept was the accepted model. The public expected a specific concerto type, and Beethoven compliedto a certain extent, as we shall see. Schering describes the French Concerto as follows:
Attuned to brilliance and splendor, magnificence and dignity, its character reveals itself at the outset in the pompous march ritornels . . . symbols of a partly heroic, partly lowly soldatesque, mentality . . . The French Violin Concerto is a product of the mood of the Revolution, a blood brother of the youthful operas of Cherubini, Mehul, representing the best qualities of the French nation. 14

The affinity between the French concerto and the French "revolutionary" opera is an interesting point. In fact, Kreutzer, aside from his activities as a violinist, was one of the successful opera composers of the 1790's; and Viotti, Rode, and Baillot, too, were deeply involved in operatic activities. Actually, however, the assertive march character of the French concerto was established well before the Revolution of 1789. In general, French music of the 178O's foreshadowed in its dramatic intensity the turbulent and aggressive mood of the coming decade; thus, the Parisian concertos of Viotti charted the course for decades to come. While Viotti said farewell to the "lowly soldatesque mentality" in 1792, his French disciples continued and elaborated his tradition. As the social pattern of the audience changed, the concertolike the operaacquired a nervous intensity, a militant boldness, a technical brilliance geared to impress an unruly public. Yet, to say that "the soloist of the Concert Spirituel was solely interested in the display of technical artifices" 15 is to belittle the musical values of the French Concerto. Not until the late 1820'smainly under the impact of Paganinidid virtuosity become the chief purpose of the concerto. In its earlier stages, under the influence of Viotti and his school, the concerto aspired to high musical standards. Indeed it is reported that
13

Ibid., p. 246. "Schering, op. cit., p. 169.

15

Ibid.

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the opening tutti of Viotti's Concerto No. 18 received as much applause as a symphony of Haydn. Structurally, the French Concerto followed the established threemovement pattern; occasionally, the second movement led without interruption into the finale, a principle that Beethoven used also. The first movement was usually divided into four orchestral ritornels and three solos. A march-like opening was traditional but not obligatory; quite a few concertos begin lyrically while others have the impassioned sweep and agitation of the contemporary operatic overture. The long-delayed entrance of the soloist was treated with great brilliance and was usually based on new thematic material, although occasionally the first orchestral theme was used. The second solo stressed a contrast in mode and an intensification of expression and brilliance; it was customarily a free fantasia, very rarely a "development" of preceding material. The last solo contained a shortened recapitulation and a cadenza within the coda of the orchestra. Deviations from this norm were rare but significant: a slow introduction (Viotti No. 16), the linking of second and third movements (Viotti No. 20; Kreutzer Nos. 5 and 7), the elimination of an introductory tutti (Kreutzer No. 7),16 or of an orchestral coda, which permitted the soloist to end a movement (Kreutzer No. 8 ) . " In Viotti's Concerto No. 20 we find a thematic link between the first and third movements. Remarkable, too, is the high number of concertos in the minor modeten out of twenty-nine in the case of Viotti.18 It is primarily the march-like character of the first movement that links Beethoven's concerto concept with that of the contemporary French school. Viotti "had met it in French music and developed it within this framework" 19 though its full realization came through Kreutzer and Rode. Beethoven's meter (like that of Viotti and Rode) is usually fourfour while Kreutzer prefers alle breve.2" Of Beethoven's seyen completed concertos (five for piano, one for violin, and the Triple Concerto), the Piano Concerto No. 5the so-called Emperor Concertohas the most pronounced military bearing, perhaps a reflection of the war-torn
A device used earlier by Mozart, in his Piano Concerto in E-flat, K. 271. Also in Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491. 18 Mozart wrote only two concertos in minor, K. 466 and K. 491. 18 Einstein, Essays, p. 246. 20 The first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 3 is usually marked alia breve (see Complete Works Edition and the Kinsky catalogue). However, Kullak's edition (Leipzig, 1882) states explicitly that Beethoven's MS (preserved in the then Royal Library in Berlin) is marked four-four.
17 16

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437

year 1809, during which Beethoven also wrote two marches for military band. Brisk and march-like, too, are the first movements of his youthful piano concertos No. 1 in C and No. 2 in B-flat; the first, "a revolutionary quickmarch, should have earned Beethoven, like Schiller, an honorary citizenship in the French Republic." 21 The Triple Concerto, Op. 56, is actually a symphonie concertante, a genre particularly popular in Paris during the late 18th and early 19th centuries; here Beethoven comes closest to the French concept. The dark-hued mood of the Piano Concerto No. 3, in C minor, seems at first far removed from any march-like affinity; only when the first theme reappears in the major modefirst in E-flat played by clarinets and horns, then in C M by horns and trumpetsdoes the military character assert itself. Nor should one overlook the drum-like motif in the third measure, which the timpani intone so ominously in the coda. A drum motif, too, provides an implied march character to the otherwise lyrical Violin Concerto, Op. 61. This character becomes more pronounced if one examines the cadenza that Beethoven wrote for the piano transcription of this work. There the timpani join the soloist in an "intrusive little four-square quick march" which, as Tovey says, may be "a topical allusion to Fidelio."23 Even the transcendental Piano Concerto No. 4, in G major (composed in the same year1806as the Violin Concerto) has its share of sublimated march music in the second subject of the first movement'and even in the finale. In his first two published piano concertos (Opp. 15 and 19) Beethoven adhered more closely to established contemporary models, whether by Mozart or Viotti. But even in these works, composed for his own use as a concert pianist, he went beyond the understanding of his audience. The Bohemian musician J. W. Tomaschek heard Beethoven play both concertos in 1798 and criticized "his frequent daring deviations from one motive to another, whereby the organic connection, the gradual development of idea was put aside." 2* Beethoven himself disparaged his first two concertos as soon as he had completed the C minor, which he withheld from publication for four years, until 1804.25
Einstein, Essays, p . 2 4 7 . Einstein, ibid., refers to this place erroneously as in " D major." 23 D . F . Tovey, Essays and Lectures on Music, L o n d o n , 1949, p . 3 2 1 . 24 Sonneck, op. cit., p . 2 2 . 45 See Beethoven's letters to Hofmeister of Dec. 15, 1800, and January, 1801; also to Breitkopf & Hartel, April 22, 1801.
32 21

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With this work, Beethoven freed himself from most contemporary conventions. The pulse may still be faintly military, but here the similarity with the French school ends. Beethoven broadens the scope of the first movement and expands it to symphonic proportions; he combines a thematic development with the free fantasia of the French; he restores and strengthens the principle of equality and rivalry between orchestra and soloist. At the same time he achieves greater concentration and economy of thematic material, which is shared by orchestra and soloist. Of Beethoven's remaining concertos, each is a marvel of inner organization, a study in itself. Even where certain novel procedures were anticipated by others, Beethoven remains supreme. Only in the Triple Concerto does he seem to bow occasionally to the conventions of the day, but even here the final Rondo alia polacca is a far cry from the customary French display piece. Einstein's assertion that Beethoven used the "musical category of the military . . . only in the concerto" 26 is but conditionally acceptable. True, the concerto is the only genre in which Beethoven is consistent in his use of an idealized march rhythm. However, the occasional use of such rhythms in categories other than the concerto is very frequent; we can find them in the symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 9, in the trios Op. 8 and Op. 11, in the quartets Op. 59, No. 2, and Op. 132, in the Violin Sonata Op. 30, No. 2, in the piano sonatas Op. 26 and Op. 101; in fact, his very first work, written at the age of eleven, was a set of piano variations on a march by Dressier. Beethoven's two "heroic" funeral marches (in Op. 26 and in the Third Symphony) bring to mind the two great funeral compositions of the French Revolutionthe Marc he lugubre by Gossec (for Mirabeau's funeral in 1791) and the Hymne funebre by Cherubini (in memory of General Hoche, 1797). Textual or programmatic considerations motivated the march interludes in Fidelio, in the Agnus Dei of the Missa solemnis, in the Battle Symphony, Op. 91, and in the finale of the Ninth Symphony. These added to his numerous marches for piano four-hands and for wind instruments show that the singular fascination military rhythms had for Beethoven went far beyond the confines of the concerto. Incidentally, many of these marches are marked alia breve, which refutes Einstein's curiously rigid statement that "the military measure is four-four time." Returning to the concerto, we find that Beethoven's slow movements
26 27

Einstein, Essays, p . 2 4 6 . Ibid., p. 249.

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439

have very little in common with the conventional French romance, as it was usually called. Viotti and his disciples kept the slow movements brief and comparatively unadornedone solo framed by two brief orchestral ritornels, with the embellishments added by the performer who, in most cases, was the composer. Beethoven's slow movements belong to his most imaginative and sensitive creations. His melodic line does not permit any improvisation; the elaborations are worked into the text with minute care. Closest to contemporary taste were Beethoven's final movements. In the French Concerto, the rondeau finales are full of piquancy, brilliance, and wistful humor. From their foreign travels the virtuoso composers brought back tunes and dance rhythms that were incorporated into the finales; boleros, polonaises, and rondos in the Spanish, Russian, and Hungarian manner were the fashion of the day. Beethoven acknowledged this trend in the gypsy-like interlude of the finale of the Piano Concerto No. 1, in the Rondo alia polacca of the Triple Concerto, in the rondo of the Violin Concerto with its perhaps slightly trivial G minor episode. Contrary to the popular concept, however, were such sections as the fugato in the Piano Concerto No. 3 or the heavily syncopated rhythms of the rondo of the Emperor Concerto. While Beethoven's piano works generally reflect his own keyboard virtuosity, he was on less familiar grounds in his violin compositions. As a youth in Bonn he played the violin and the viola; in Vienna, he took violin lessons and tried some of his own violin sonatas with Ferdinand Ries; the results were "awful music."28 His collaboration with Viennese violinists like Franz Clement, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, and Joseph Boehm was useful though he was inclined to scoff at advice. More casual was Beethoven's contact with visiting virtuosos, yet he may have gathered some valuable information about the French violin style through the visits of Kreutzer, Rode, and Baillot. Examples 3 and 4 show a certain melodic affinity although Beethoven's interest in the French violin school was primarily concerned with the technical aspects of the instrument. Kreutzer came to Vienna in 1798, accompanying the French ambassador, General Bernadotte. Beethoven, who at that time was a frequent visitor at the French legation, may have met and heard Kreutzer there. In 1804 Beethoven remembered Kreutzer as "a good, amiable
28

F. Ries, in Sonneck, op. cit., p. 58.

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Ex.3
Kr

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" t " ' - : Concerto No. 2 (e. 1785) 4 Allegro mooWato

.Beethoven, Violin Sonata, 0p.E4 (l80l) ^Allegro' '

|Whoven:Duo forjfcola and Cello (e.l79S-98)

ri

f|ff

Beethoven: Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4 (cJfJOO)

man who during his stay here gave me much pleasure. His unaffectedness and natural manner are more to my taste than all extSrieur or intirieur of most virtuosos." Beethoven also thought highly of Kreutzer's musical ability, for he decided to dedicate his Violin Sonata Op. 47 to him. "Since the sonata is written for a first-rate player, the dedication is all the more fitting." w The work was originally composed for the violinist George Bridgetower; the dedication to Kreutzer was an afterthought,30 planned as a surprise to the recipient. Possibly Kreutzer resented this sequence of events; at any rate, he did not acknowledge the dedication or play the sonata in public. Obviously Beethoven misjudged his "good friend," for Kreutzer continued to show hostility towards Beethoven's works when the conductor Frangois Habeneck tried to introduce the Second Symphony to the Parisian public. According to Berlioz, Kreutzer found Beethoven's Sonata Op. 47 "outrageously unintelligible." 31 The whole concept of equal partnership may have struck him as absurd; in those days, the virtuoso expected preferential treatment even in chamber music. On the other hand, this sonata certainly did not lack brilliance; in fact, Beethoven had planned it "in a very concertante style, in the manner of a concerto." M While the second and third 33 movements show
29 30

B o t h quotations from letter to Simrock, O c t . 4 , 1804. T h e latest ( 5 t h ) edition of Grove's Sonata musical concertato, Kreutzer is wrong. en Allemagne quasi Sonata come et en Italie, d'un Paris, 1 8 4 4 , p . 263f. wrote B e e t h o v e n o n for the Violin Concerto, Dictionary contains contradictory statethe facts are stated correctly,

ments c o n c e r n i n g this work. I n the article Kreutzer while the entry Kreutzer
31 32

H . Berlioz, Voyage In un stilo The finale molto of the

the inside of his sketchbook of 1 8 0 3 (described by G. N o t t e b o h m ) .

33

w a s originally written

Sonata O p . 3 0 , N o . 1.

Beethoven and the French Violin School

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an idiomatic treatment of the violin, the first movement is "outrageously" awkward; furthermore, the piano tends to overpower the violin, which is often held in too low a register.34 Beethoven did not compose another violin sonata for many years. The completion of his tenth and last sonata (Op. 96) for piano and violin was hastened by the arrival of the famous French violinist Pierre Rode, who visited Vienna in 1812. The first movement seems to have been written earlier; now, Beethoven set out to complete the work for a performance by Rode and Archduke Rudolph. Working on the finale, the composer said in a letter: "In writing it, I must consider Rode's style of playing. We are fond of rushing passages in our finales, yet that does not suit Rode, andit really troubles me somewhat."35 Why "rushing passages" should have bothered a virtuoso of Rode's rank is hard to understand; certainly Rode's own compositions contain more technical difficulties than Beethoven ever cared to incorporate in his sonatas. True, in 1812 Rode was already on the decline, and his colleague Louis Spohr "missed his former boldness in conquering great difficulties."36 If Rode was disappointing in his own music, he must have been even more so in a work as alien to him as Beethoven's Op. 96. The composer was frankly concerned; after the first performance, and prior to a second, he decided to send the violin part to Rode for further study. "I hope he won't mind my sending the part. I wish to God there were a need to beg forgiveness for doing so; matters would certainly be in better shape."37 A contemporary review stated that the piano part (played by the Archduke) was performed "with more understanding of the work and with more soul" than the violin part; "Mr. Rode's greatness does not seem to lie in this type of music but in the performance of the concerto."38 Curiously, in an otherwise introspective composition, Beethoven satisfied his desire for a "rushing passage" in the final measures of the sonata, which contain an extremely exposed run. The amusing similarity of Beethoven's finale theme with a tune from an operetta by J. A. Hiller (Der lustige Schuster) was pointed out by Nottebohm.39
34 Carl Czerny's unverified story (see Thayer-Krehbiel, I I , 10) according to which Beethoven presumably borrowed a theme of Kreutzer for the Sonata O p . 47 (closing subject, first movement) is a myth. 35 Letter to Archduke Rudolph, Dec, 1812. 38 Louis Spohr, Autobiography, London, 1878, I, 165. "Letter to Archduke Rudolph, Jan., 1813. 38 G16ggl's Musikzeitung, Jan. 4, 1813. 38 G. Nottebohm, Beethoveniana, Leipzig, 1872, pp. 26-30.

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More impersonal was the meeting with the French violinist Pierre Baillot, who was introduced to Beethoven in 1805. Ten years later, Baillot's name is mentioned in a letter from Karl Amenda to his old friend Beethoven:
There, in Mitau, I also heard Baillot from Paris. Oh, what a powerful instrument is the violin when it speaks through Baillot's soul . . . He was in Vienna, spoke with enthusiasm about you, preferred your compositions to all others, and admitted that he played for you only once, but in great embarrassment . . .40

This letter, written in 1815, gives no indication as to when Amenda spoke to Baillot; they must have met when Baillot passed through Courland on one of his journeys to Russia. Baillot's professed enthusiasm for Beethoven was no idle talk. In 1814 he established chamber-music concerts in Paris (modelled after Schuppanzigh's concerts in Vienna), which contributed decisively to the understanding of Beethoven in Paris. In 1828, during the first season of the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire, Baillot played the completely forgotten Violin Concerto of Beethoven, which, since its premiere in 1806, had received only one performance, in Berlin, in 1812. Another violinist of the French school, Henri Vieuxtemps, played it in Vienna in 1834. But not until the thirteen-year-old Joseph Joachim performed the concerto in London in 1844, with Mendelssohn as conductor, did the work begin to win popularity. As late as 1855, the eminent Louis Spohrwho rejected the late works of Beethoven while enthusiastically approving Richard Wagner said to Joachim after a performance of the Beethoven Concerto, "This is all very nice, but now I'd like to hear you play a real violin piece."41 Insensitive as the judgment of Spohr may sound, it was conditioned by the virtuoso practices of the early 19th century. In those days few virtuosos were interested in performing concertos other than their own; their display pieces had to be tailored to their "style." Despite its unique beauty, the Violin Concerto of Beethoven suffers from the disparity between a towering musical concept and a comparatively unidiomatic treatment of the solo instrument. Beethoven's knowledge of the violin, though based on actual playing experience, cannot be compared with his creative affinity for the piano. His violin passages are conventional and seem at times to be derived from the keyboard, an impression that may be due to the proximity of the Piano Concerto in G major, com40 41

Thayer-Deiters, Beethoven, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1911, I I I , 502. A. Moser, Joseph Joachim, Berlin, 1910, I I , 290.

lltldil-MAKIt-tKAMlHS HAIU.OT IMC SAI tS

4-

0* -<7'

<?*

From the Author's collection

A Letter from Viotti to Baillot, July 29, 1823

Beethoven and the French Violin School

443

posed during the same year. Beethoven was certainly aware of the problem; the original score of the Violin Concerto, as described by Tovey, "assigns four staves to the violin solo, in order to leave room for alterations; and in many places all the four staves have been filled."" Revealing, too, is a comparison between the violin solo part and the solo part in the transcription for piano solo and orchestra, where idiomatic adjustments are apparent.43 In addition, Beethoven consulted the contemporary concerto repertory of Viotti, Kreutzer, and Rode, who were masters in exploiting the technical resources of their instrument. The following examples will show certain violinistic similarities. Broken octaves, which Beethoven favors in the first and last movements of his
Ex 5
Viotti: Concerto No. I (e.l782L / Beettioven i Violin

f Mr 7 7 IT r
Ex. 6 Kreuheri Concerto No.6 ( t 1790)

, 1st solo(l806K

Ex. 7 Viotti. Rondo, of Concertos No.l and6

42 43

D . F . Tovey, Essays in Musical

Analysis

(Concertos),

L o n d o n , 1936, p . 8 7 .

See O. Jonas, Das Autograph von Beethovens V iolinkonzert, in Zeitschrift fur Musikwissenschaft, 1930-31, p. 443f.; also F. Munster, Beethovens Bearbeitungen eigener Werke, in Neues Beethoven-Jahrbuch, VI (1935), 159f. Transcriptions of this type were not uncommon during that period. Certain violin concertos by Viotti were arranged as piano concertos by noted pianists like Steibelt and Dussek; other concertos by Viotti, originally written for piano, were transcribed for the violin by the composer. A double concerto Op. 3 by Viotti for violin solo, piano solo, and orchestra, discovered by the writer of this article and recently performed in New York and Chicago, turned out to be an anonymous transcription of Viotti's Violin Concerto No. 9 omitting the slow movement. See also Marta Walter, Ein Klavierkonzert von Jean Baptiste Viotti, in Schweizerische Musikzeitung, March, 1955, p. 99f.

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concerto, were used in similar fashion by Viotti and Kreutzer (Exx. 5-7). A favorite device of Viotti was the elaboration of a melodic line in triplet passages; it reappears prominently in Beethoven's first movement (Ex. 8). Kreutzer, too, had a personal manner in writing embellishing pasEx. 8 ViotH:ConcerfoNo.l,lstmo*pisnt

Beethoven* Violin Concerto. I** movement1

sages which seems to have impressed Beethoven (Exx. 9 and 10). Rode's
E x . O Kreutzer: Concerto No.4 (l79O) Kreutter: Concerto No.l3(d8O4)

x~ '"$c+.

>

E x . 10 Kreutier; Concerto No. 16 ( c I80S)

Beethoven: Violin Concer+o (1806)

technique was too intricately violinistic to interest Beethoven; only occasionally is there a faint relationship, as in the following two excerpts (Exx. 11 and 12). In general, Beethoven's technical demands are more
Ex. 11
Rode: Concerto No.I (1790.'

2nd .theme

I 2nd theme '

modest than those of the Parisian school, for he uses the violin passages not for display but primarily, as elaborations of thematic material

Beethoven and the French Violin School

445

presented by the orchestra. Thus he has no interest in the characteristic potentialities of various bow strokesa field in which Rode was unEx. 12
Rode: Concerto No.6

f
disputed master; most bowings in Beethoven's solo part were added by later editors. Double stops are almost entirely avoided, although an effective passage in the finale seems to point towards a Viotti device
Ex. 13
Viotti: Concerto No.S (first ngvenwit)

(Ex. 13). Nor does Beethoven care to exploit the rich register of the G string, except for the juxtaposition of the Rondo themean effective contrast previously tried by Viotti (Ex. 14). In general, however,
Ex. 14. Viotti = Concerto No.6 (1782), Firale
l r

Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Rondo

Beethoven shows a predilection for the silvery high register of the E string. Whether the violinist Franz Clement, for whom Beethoven wrote the concerto, was consulted in matters of technique, is difficult to ascertain. Tovey believes that Beethoven "took pains" in meeting Clement's criticism and considers the autograph of the concerto, with its many alternate passages, "a lesson in the correct attitude of a composer towards a player." ** Directly or indirectly, Clement may well have influenced the texture of the solo part. His playing was graceful rather than vigorous,
44

Tovey, op. vit., p. 87.

446

The Musical Quarterly

his tone small but expressive, and he possessed unfailing assurance and purity in high positions and exposed entrances. Perhaps in keeping with the temperament and technical idiosyncrasies of his interpreter, Beethoven stressed the lyrical aspects of the violin while shifting the dramatic accents into the orchestra. Despite its implied march pulse, the first movement of Beethoven's Violin Concerto is far removed from the contemporary concept. It is conceived along symphonic lines; the orchestra carries most of the thematic material while the solo violin appears at times almost incidental. The idea of embedding, as it were, the solo part into the orchestral texture was novel and alien to the virtuoso concept of the 19th century; it found no imitators except Brahms. Another departure from convention was the withholding of the cantabile theme from the soloist until the coda of the movement. The formidable and unusual length of the first movement is caused by two full expositions; by a development section expanded through the addition of a new episode; and by a rather full recapitulation with cadenza and coda. The lack of contrast between the two principal themes is mitigated somewhat by the opening four-four motif, which provides a measure of dramatic contrast. The Larghetto, perhaps the most perfectly realized movement of the three, has in its closing section an affinity with Viotti's most famous work, the Concerto No. 22.** It is noticeable not only in the melodic line and supporting harmonies but in the whole manner in which the
E x . 15 VioHh Adagio from Concerto No. 22 (1793)

fTTTTTTT

TTTTTTTT

TTTTTT

TT TTT

. Larghetto from Vtolln ConcerfojQg06)

Brahms was particularly fond of Viotti's Concerto No. 22, to which he seems to allude in his own Violin Concerto; he appears to have been more enthusiastic about it than about even the Beethoven Concerto. See A. Moser, Geschichte des Violinspiels, Berlin, 1923, p. 391f.

45

Beethoven and the French Violin School

447

phrase is placed within the context of the movement (Ex. 15). The forte preparation of the cadenza at the end also seems to have a certain relationship. Beethoven's Rondo finale approximates perhaps most closely to the contemporary taste. The theme (possibly by Clement)46 is not of startling originality, and it is used somewhat repetitiously. The contemporary critic who objected to the "infinite repetitions of some trivial spots [which] became quite tiring"47 may have had the Rondo in mind. From the point of view of violin technique, the last movement is definitely more idiomatic and inventive than the first. When the Concerto is considered as a whole, one must admit that while Beethoven may not have matched his French colleagues in the efficient handling of the solo part, in the end his genius was bound to relegate the violinistic shortcomings into the background. Indeed, one is not aware of them unless deliberately scanning the work from that point of view.

"An old Viennese tradition names Clement as the originator [Urheber] of the rondo theme." Schering, op. cit., p. 204. 47 Wiener Theaterzeitung, Dec. 1806. Quoted in Moser, op. cit., p. 507.

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