Beethoven, Ludwig van / arr. Weingartner

Ludwig van Beethoven – Große Fuge B-dur op. 133 (1825-26/1906)

arranged for string orchestra by Felix Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg
(b. Zadar, 2nd June 1863 – d. Winterthur, 7th May 1942)

Vorwort
Ludwig van Beethoven composed the Große Fuge (Grande Fugue) as final movement of his Streichquartett (String Quartet), Op. 130, in B flat major, which was composed in the years of 1825 and 1826. The premiere took place on the 21st March 1826 in Vienna. One of the musicians, the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776-1830), cursed about the enormous difficulties of the playing technique. In addition, the audience did not receive the final movement well, as it can be read in a concert review of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (‘General Musical Gazette’):
“But the sense of the finale as a fugue the critic does not dare to interpret: for him it was unintelligible, like Chinese. […] But we do not want to deny it overhasty: maybe the time will still come, when that, which initially seems murky and obscure to us, will be recognised clearly and with complacent forms.” …

Read full preface > HERE