Beethoven's 10th?

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1827, Ludwig van Beethoven dictated and signed a letter in which he mentions “a new symphony, which lies already sketched in my desk.” This new work would have been Beethoven’s 10th Symphony.

But in March 1827, Beethoven was ill and his friends feared the worst. Even so, he seemed optimistic that he could finish a new symphony as a thank you for the Philharmonic Society of London. The society had recently sent him 100 pounds in the hopes it would ease his sickbed, and Beethoven was touched by their kindness.

“I will compose a grand symphony for them,” he told visitors.

But eight days later Beethoven died, and for the next 150 years most people disputed that he had in fact sketched out such a new symphony. It wasn’t until the 1960s that scholars started sorting through his sketchbooks and not until the 1980s that evidence surfaced to prove it.

British Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper went so far as to assemble a performing version of Beethoven’s sketches for the first movement of his 10th Symphony. Appropriately enough, as Beethoven intended his new symphony for a British premiere, the first recording of Cooper’s reconstruction was made by the London Symphony.

Music Played in Today's Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 10 (arr. Dr. Barry Cooper); London Symphony; Wyn Morris, cond. MCA 6269

On This Day

Births

• 1844 - Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, in Tikhvin (Julian Date: March 6)

• 1882 - Italian composer and first editor of the collected works of Monteverdi and Vivaldi, Gian Francesco Malipiero, in Venice

Deaths

• 1994 - American composer Williams Bergsma, age 72, in Seattle

Premieres

• 1902 - Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string sextet, in Vienna, by the Rosé Quartet and two extra players

• 1904 - Liadov: symphonic poem Baba Yaga, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: March 5)

• 1927 - Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 40 (original version) in Philadelphia, with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski and the composer as soloist; On the same program was the premiere performance of Rachmaninoff's Three Russian Songs for chorus and orchestra (dedicated to Stokowski); A revised (and much shortened) version of this concerto premiered in Philadelphia on Oct. 17, 1941, with Eugene Ormandy conducting and the composer again as soloist

• 1949 - Peter Mennin: Symphony No. 4 (The Cycle), in New York City

• 1965 - Broadway premiere of Richard Rodgers: musical Do I Hear a Waltz?, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; The musical had its trail-run premiere in New Haven on Feb. 1, 1965

• 1970 - Roger Sessions: Rhapsody for orchestra, in Baltimore

• 1994 - James Mobberley: Piano Concerto, at the Lyric Theater in Kansas City, Mo., by the Kansas City Symphony, with Richard Cass the soloist and Bill McGlaughlin conducting