Jul 6, 2020
My guest today is Professor Mark Ferraguto, he is an Associate Professor of Musicology at Penn State University. He will talk to us about his very interesting book “Beethoven 1806”, which was published by Oxford University Press in 2019.
0:30 Can you describe your musical background?
1:36 What were the things that bothered you about the way Beethoven
was discussed?
3:08 Was Beethoven himself to blame for this because of the way he
marketed himself?
4:27 The bust of Beethoven in a Liszt painting
4:53 Beethoven anecdote arguing with a violinist
5:36 How did you come to choosing 1806 for research?
6:20 What are the 3 periods of Beethoven?
7:16 How do these non-heroic works of 1806 appear in his middle
period?
8:34 Career-wise, how was Beethoven doing in 1806
9:37 What was Beethoven’s music education?
11:22 Was Beethoven a child prodigy?
12:16 Could Beethoven play the complete Bach Well Tempered Clavier
as a child?
12:55 Was Beethoven aware of the growing culture of Romanticism
around him?
14:05 Leonore Overture
15:13 Was Opera not really his thing?
15:47 How did Luigi Cherubini affect Fidelio and Beethoven?
16:50 Did Beethoven have good things to say about his
contemporaries and what did he think of Cherubini?
18:00 Is there an Italian connection with Beethoven?
19:03 The 4th Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto and the
terminology of the term “Virtuoso”
20:46 What are these new sources that might be of interest to
Beethoven scholars?
22:17 How did the French Érard Piano affect the composition of the
4th piano concerto?
23:55 Is the Violin concerto a virtuoso piece?
25:11 What are the distinctive musical features of the 4th piano
concerto?
27:25 Did the public want the virtuosity or something else?
29:13 Was Beethoven making fun of Russians with his Razumovsky
String Quartets?
30:27 Were the criticisms of the string quartets modern or
contemporary?
32:53 What does the learned style or approach mean and what is it
contrasted with?
34:25 Were the terms stile antico used in the 18th century?
35:27 How famous was Joseph Haydn in 1806?
36:48 Is the 4th symphony a regression as compared to the 3rd
symphony?
37:39 How did the French Érard piano lead to the composition of the
32 variations in C minor?
40:34 Is there an evolution in piano writing in these variations
compared to his previous variations?
42:19 The Coriolan overture as a return to the Heroic
44:20 What’s the significance of the playwright and the Corialan
overture?
45:25 What do you mean by the term Everyday Beethoven?
46:26 What were the most surprising things about your research?
47:38 How has Beethoven research changed over the last couple of
decades?
49:17 Was Beethoven actually not deaf?
51:19 Can you recommend any sections from Beethoven’s music that
people should listen to?
54:19 Wrapping Up