£220,000 Appeal for Beethoven Score
A £220,000 appeal has been launched to keep in British hands a rare manuscript score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony annotated by the composer, and other momentous documents in the history of music. The manuscript - alongside the score of Mendelssohn's First Symphony and 25 others -...
A £220,000 appeal has been launched to keep in British hands a rare manuscript score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony annotated by the composer, and other momentous documents in the history of music.
The manuscript - alongside the score of Mendelssohn's First Symphony and 25 others - are part of the 190-year-old archive of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Valued at more than £1m, the archive is in danger of being broken up or leaving the UK. To keep it together, it has been offered to the British Library, which plans to spend some of its own funds and has been promised lottery money if the remainder can be raised.
Introducing the appeal, the pianist Mitsuko Uchida said: "Nothing can replace the magic of seeing and working from an original musical score, to follow the composer's thoughts and corrections across the page."
The Ninth Symphony was first performed in 1824 under the working title "symphony with final chorus on Schiller's Ode to Joy for large orchestra". A witness account speaks of the composer continuing to beat time even after the ovations started, and the "explosion of sympathy and admiration" as the audience realised he was deaf.
After hearing it performed in Moscow, Joseph Stalin said: "This is the right music for the masses, it can't be performed often enough." Seventy years later the Ninth Symphony was played to mark the destruction of the Berlin Wall, separating West and East Germany.
In 1825 the RPS was the first to perform the work in Britain. Eight days before he died, in 1827, Beethoven wrote promising the orchestra what would have been his 10th symphony.
The RPS collection includes working papers, minute books and correspondence with many of the great composers and performers of their day.
Details of the appeal from Paola Barbarino at the British Library, 020 7412 7047, or www.bl.uk
The manuscript - alongside the score of Mendelssohn's First Symphony and 25 others - are part of the 190-year-old archive of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Valued at more than £1m, the archive is in danger of being broken up or leaving the UK. To keep it together, it has been offered to the British Library, which plans to spend some of its own funds and has been promised lottery money if the remainder can be raised.
Introducing the appeal, the pianist Mitsuko Uchida said: "Nothing can replace the magic of seeing and working from an original musical score, to follow the composer's thoughts and corrections across the page."
The Ninth Symphony was first performed in 1824 under the working title "symphony with final chorus on Schiller's Ode to Joy for large orchestra". A witness account speaks of the composer continuing to beat time even after the ovations started, and the "explosion of sympathy and admiration" as the audience realised he was deaf.
After hearing it performed in Moscow, Joseph Stalin said: "This is the right music for the masses, it can't be performed often enough." Seventy years later the Ninth Symphony was played to mark the destruction of the Berlin Wall, separating West and East Germany.
In 1825 the RPS was the first to perform the work in Britain. Eight days before he died, in 1827, Beethoven wrote promising the orchestra what would have been his 10th symphony.
The RPS collection includes working papers, minute books and correspondence with many of the great composers and performers of their day.
Details of the appeal from Paola Barbarino at the British Library, 020 7412 7047, or www.bl.uk
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