Daily Beethoven — Sparks of Joy

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Piano trio, variations on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu” theme

“Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu” (I am Kakadu the tailor) was the name of a popular tune from Wenzel Muller’s opera “Die Schwestern von Prag (The Sisters from Prague). Beethoven composed these variations during his early years in Vienna, then sent them to the publisher after the opera was revived in 1814, with the note, “one of my earlier compositions, though it is not among the reprehensible ones”. 
Enjoy this delightful performance by the ATOS Trio. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Lessons from history: act for your nation.

Eleonore Prochaska was the daughter of a Prussian soldier, raised in a military orphanage after the death of her mother. She was one of many German women who fought in the Napoleonic Wars, though most were ejected from the army when it was found out that they were women. In 1813, Prochaska disguised herself and joined the the Lützow Free Corps under the name August Renz, serving first as a drummer, then in the infantry. She was severely wounded in battle and died three weeks later. In death, she was memorialized as a chaste heroine and “Potsdam’s Joan of Arc”. A momument to her memory, “Der Heldenjungfrau zum Gedächtnis”, or “In memory of the maiden-heroine” survives to this day in Potsdam’s Old Cemetery.
In 1814, Johann Friedrich Duncker accompanied the King of Prussia to the Congress of Vienna, and asked Beethoven to compose incidental music for his play, “Leonora Prohaska”. The play was never performed, as the subject had already been treated in Piwald’s “Das Madchen von Potsdam” which was performed that year.
Beethoven’s music has four parts:
1) Chorus, “Wir bauen und sterben’ (We build and die);
2) Romanze (Es blüht eine Blume im Garten mein) (A Flower blooms in my garden);
3) Melodrama;
4) Trauermarsch (Funeral March);
The fourth number is an arrangement for full orchestra of the funeral march from the Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major, Op. 26, transposed from A flat minor to B minor.
This rarely-heard work is performed here by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbado. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Beethoven: Sparks of Joy – Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2 

The second of Beethoven’s Opus 18 quartets has earned the nickname “Compliments Quartet” or “Quartet of Bows and Curtseys.” With Haydnesque overtones, it was first published in 1801. Good-natured and full of surprises, it’s performed here by the world-famous Amadeus Quartet.

Founded in 1947 by refugees from Hitler’s Anschluss, the Amadeus Quartet retained its original membership for the next 40 years until the death of violist Peter Schidlof. First violinist and primarius Norbert Brainin was also famously a close friend of Lyndon LaRouche, whom he considered as more knowledgeable about music than he was! An interview with Brainin is linked here. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]