Beethoven’s two Violin Romances are popular early works which are a mainstay of the repertoire. Jonathan Del Mar has now created new editions of them, and as part of the process, included practical performing tips in the Urtext edition.
Beethoven´s two Violin Romances are in some ways similar: delightful miniatures of about 8 minutes each, and originating in Beethoven´s earlier period of composition. Yet their textual problems are very different. The F major, a very early work dating from about 1798, suffers from the unusual problem in Beethoven, even in his earliest works, of an almost total lack of any dynamic markings, and far fewer indications of slurring than we would normally expect from him. Consequently, a true Urtext Edition finds itself seriously up against the wall: within any permissible terms of reference, the piece would be unplayable from the edition, both soloist and orchestra finding the endless separate notes impossible to adhere to, and inevitably having to concoct ad hoc dynamics in order to make a performance work at all.
Though clearly totally unhelpful on any kind of practical level, this approach is exactly that espoused by the only Urtext Edition currently available, and even in the (usually eminently practical) old Breitkopf Gesamtausgabe the problems are addressed only to a small extent. What options, then, are left to the honest Urtext editor? We have pursued a novel and radical course here, and presented the reader with two complete scores: one clean but unplayable, the other addressing all the needs of performing musicians. This second, practical score has been compiled by using the added resource of comparison with similar and contemporaneous Beethoven works which are indeed furnished with all the necessary markings. Within the ethic of a performing edition, such markings may be utilized (in editorial brackets, of course) so that the piece both works and is marked strictly within a Beethovenian ethic – moreover, one from the same period as the piece itself.
The G major Romance, from a few years later, has the entirely different (and in Beethoven much more familiar) problem that, though completely composed in every detail, Beethoven’s autograph clearly does not represent his final intentions: In a fair quantity of instances, the printed first edition simply carries a different text. Where the evidence is unequivocal that this cannot possibly be a mistake, but clearly points to a subsequent revision, we have no alternative but to follow it. By following the first edition (for the first time since that edition itself!) we have restored Beethoven´s more lively, springy articulation which pervades the entire piece and cannot fail to grant the piece a subtly different, more buoyant, character.
In addition to the Urtext solo part, a second solo part with bowings and fingerings by Detlef Hahn is also included with the piano reduction.
Jonathan Del Mar
from [t]akte 2/2011