Beethovens Orchestermusik und Konzerte: Das Handbuch ed. by Oliver Korte, Albrecht Riethmüller (review)

Beethovens Orchestermusik und Konzerte is the first volume in a six-volume set of books that the publisher’s Web site claims is “the most comprehensive Beethoven-Panorama of all time.” Laaber’s impressive publishing program includes in their Handbuch series recently complete, or in progress, multivolume musical lexica devoted to the composers Mozart, Handel, and Bach, a double-volume of which was previously reviewed by this reviewer in this journal (Notes 71, no. 1 [September 2014]). Three other volumes of the six-volume Beethoven-Handbuch are, like this one, devoted to specific subsections of Beethoven’s oeuvre: piano music (vol. 2), chamber music (vol. 3), and theatrical and vocal music (vol. 4), while the final two volumes deal with the composer’s world (Beethovens Welt, vol. 5, still in preparation), and a broad range of reference topics (Das Beethoven-Lexikon, vol. 6).

In outline, at least, the organization for this collection of books parallels the other composer Handbuch series from this publisher. Beethovens Orchestermusik itself is arranged in twenty-two unnumbered chapters, fifteen of which deal with specific pieces, individually or in groups, and seven of which deal with topics that more generally relate to Beethoven’s orchestral music as a whole. As examples, the fourth (pp. 107–16), fifth (pp. 117–29), and sixth (pp. 130–46) symphonies each have a chapter written by Larissa W. Kirillina, and the ninth symphony has its own chapter (pp. 279–318) by Frédéric Döhl, while the five piano concertos share a chapter (pp. 350–92) by Birger Petersen, and the violin concerto and romances together with the triple concerto share a chapter (pp. 393–415) by Frederik Knop. Examples of chapters that deal with topics spanning the orchestral repertoire include “Beethoven as Conductor, his Musicians, and the Organization of his Akademie Concerts” (pp. 95–106; “Beethoven als Dirigent, seine Musiker und die Organisation seiner Akademien”; translations throughout this review are my own) by Friederike Wißmann; “Beethoven’s Symphonies: Printing, Marketing, Distribution” (pp. 216–32; “Beethovens Sinfonien: Druck, Vertrieb, Distribution”) by Julia Ronge; and “Social Numbers and Particularities of the Orchestra in Vienna in the Time of Early Beethoven,” (pp. 319–49; “Soziale Chiffren und Wiener Besonderheiten des Orche sters zur Zeit des frühen Beethoven”) by Oliver Vogel. The book includes fifty pages of source readings (pp. 481–530) by an eclectic range of figures: Hector Berlioz, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Hans von Bülow, Ferruccio Busoni, Claude Debussy, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Franz Liszt, Anne-Sophie Mutter and André Previn, Elly Ney, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Richard Wagner, and an “Anhang” (or appendix) that includes a bibliography of works cited; a brief catalog of Beethoven’s orchestral music; indexes of personal names, of Beethoven’s works, and of works by other composers; and biographical sketches of the fifteen contributors.

While the sheer quantity of shelf space inhabited by a six-volume series could imply a sense of completeness, it becomes clear, glancing at the bibliography of the volume under review, or any other recent bibliography of materials dealing with Beethoven, that only a small fraction of what has been written, even of the most important work, can possibly be reflected here. A text on the back cover suggests the editorial goal for this volume: Beethovens Orchestermusik “describes the performance and reception conditions and shows the context of the period of creation” of these works (beschreibt ihre Aufführungs- und Rezeptionsbedingungen und zeigt den Kontext ihrer Entstehungszeit auf). This book falls into a category somewhere between a single-volume composer reference and a detailed monograph of an individual work. The utility of a single-volume vade mecum is clear. When done well, it can be a cost-effective, ready reference that brings together a huge number of pertinent facts, as with The Beethoven Compendium: A Guide to Beethoven’s Life and Music (Barry Cooper, ed...