VOL. XLIV, No. 4 40Bk. OCTOBER, 1958

THE MUSICALQUARTERLY

BEETHOVEN AND THEFRENCH VIOLIN SCHOOL

By BORIS SCHWARZ

BEETHOVEN'S early contact with French music left an indelibleimprint on his style. While Haydn was homespun, while Mozart

was oriented towards Italy, Beethoven's most important foreign influencecame from France. Although transmuted and thoroughly absorbed, thisinfluence remained with him through life; it can be traced from earlypieces composed in Bonn to the Ninth Symphony.

In Bonn as well as in Vienna, Beethoven's preoccupation withFrench music was at times quite intense. During his adolescent yearsin Bonn, he became thoroughly acquainted with the repertory of thepre-revolutionary opera comique. After coming to Vienna, he showeda lively interest in the latest works of the French school, the lyric dramasof the 179O's, which served as his models for Fidelio. His personal con-tacts with French artists—the violinists Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode,and Pierre Baillot—gave him an insight into the high standards of violinvirtuosity and the style of the so-called French Violin Concerto. Thevisit of Luigi Cherubini, who came to Vienna in 1805 as a recognizedmaster of the French operatic style, brought Beethoven face to face withthe musician he respected most among his contemporaries.

In Beethoven's time, French composers excelled not only in the field

of opera but in a specific area of instrumental music—the violin con-

Copyright, 1958, by G. Schinner, Inc.

431

432 The Musical Quarterly

certo. Even before 1780, the French violin school had reached highstandards, exemplified by the works of Jean-Marie Leclair and PierreGavinies, but the Italian school represented by Giuseppe Tartini andPietro Locatelli was considered supreme.

The situation changed drastically with the arrival in Paris of Gio-vanni Battista Viotti, an Italian violinist schooled by Gaetano Pugnani.In 1782, Viotti made his debut at the Concert Spirituel in one of hisown concertos. Neither as virtuoso nor as composer did he enjoy in-stantaneous success; there was some objection to a style designed "moreto astonish than to please." l The mutual rapprochement, however, wasrapid; barely a year later, in April 1783, the Mercure de France re-ported: "Viotti was received with the most merited enthusiasm, and itseems that the artists begin to forgive him for not being born in France."For ten years, until 1792, Viotti lived in Paris—performing,* composing,teaching, and conducting. So strong was his influence, so unique werehis accomplishments as violinist and as composer for his instrument, thathe brought about a complete regeneration of French violin art. Again,as with Lully, Gluck, and Cherubini, we see a foreign musician combinehis native heritage so skillfully with French tradition and taste that theresult is acclaimed by the French as their own product. Viotti's conceptof the violin concerto—an imaginative fusion of Italian, French, andGerman elements—was eagerly absorbed and developed by his Frenchdisciples and ultimately became known as the French Violin Concerto.A vast new repertory was created—Viotti alone composed twenty-nineconcertos, Kreutzer nineteen, Rode thirteen, Baillot nine. By 1800, theolder concerto repertory was obliterated, and the concerto of the Parisianschool reigned supreme as the model of its kind. In Paris, this traditionbecame so ingrained that until 1853 (with one exception in 1845) noconcertos other than Viotti's were used in the public contests of theConservatoire.

Viotti's French disciples were not only prolific composers but alsosuperb virtuosos and conscientious teachers. As indefatigable travelers,they carried the fame of the French school throughout Europe. The lusterof that school was dimmed only temporarily by the meteoric appearanceof Paganini. The Viotti tradition was perpetuated when his three most

1 Pierre Baillot, Notice sur Viotti, Paris, 1825.2 After a last appearance on Sept. 8, 1783, Viotti retired from the Concert

Spirituel and was heard thereafter only at private concerts. He resumed his concertcareer in 1792 at London, where he performed his own concertos at the Salomonconcerts, side by side with Haydn.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 433

prominent disciples—Rode, Kreutzer, and Baillot—were appointed tothe faculty of the newly founded Conservatoire (1795); they were alsoput in charge of writing the official violin method, which appeared in1803. The result was a unique homogeneity of French violin-playingwhich was reflected in the superlative standards of Parisian orchestras.The fame of the Conservatoire orchestra—at that time a student en-semble reinforced by a few alumni—reached Beethoven, who said toBaron de Tremont in 1809, "I should like to hear Mozart's symphoniesin Paris; I am told that they are played better at the Conservatoire thananywhere else."3 The same orchestra had played Beethoven's FirstSymphony in 1807 and 1808, the first performances of any of his or-chestral works in Paris.

The violin concertos of Viotti began to be published in Paris in 1782,though some were composed earlier. By 1792, he had completed twentyconcertos which achieved wide circulation; by 1800, "in Vienna andSt. Petersburg, in London and Paris, everyone played Viotti." * In 1785or 1786 5 Viotti's Concerto No. 16 was performed in Vienna at one ofthe subscription concerts of Mozart, who enlarged the original orchestra-tion by adding trumpets and timpani.6 At about the same time, Mozartcomposed a piano concerto (K. 467) with a pronounced march-likepulsation in the first movement. This idealized march character was thehallmark of the "French" Viotti concerto, and Einstein maintains thatMozart "simply transferred Viotti's concept from the violin to the pianoconcerto." 7 Actually, Mozart had used "military" concerto themes beforeany of Viotti's works were published, for example in the Violin Concertoin D major, K. 218, written at Salzburg in 1775. Its principal theme ispractically identical with the opening of Viotti's Concerto No. 2,published in 1782.

3 O. G. Sonneck, Beethoven, Impressions of Contemporaries, New York, 1926,p. 73.

4 A Schering, Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts, Leipzig, 1905, p. 204.5 The year is not clearly established. Alfred Einstein, in Essays on Music, New

York, 1956, p. 245, gives 1783, which is obviously an error. In Kochel-Einstein(3rd ed., p. 594) we find the year 1785. Wyzewa and Saint-Foix assume 1786. Allare at variance with the latest chronological listing of Viotti's works in RemoGiazotto, G. B. Viotti, Milan, 1956, where the Concerto No! 16 is listed as havingbeen composed in 1789.

•Kochel 470a. Whether Mozart's Andante K.470 (now lost) was meant toreplace. Viotti's original slow movement is not established.

7 Essays on Music, p. 245.

434 The Musical Quarterly

E x . 1 M<raaH:ViolinGonce+o inD, K.2l8(l77S)

Viotti, Violin Concerto No.2,(l782)

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This curious coincidence strengthens the belief that both Mozart andViotti were stimulated by earlier French concertos in which the marchritornel occurred frequently.8 Perhaps less coincidental is a striking simi-larity between a phrase in the opening tutti of Viotti's Concerto No. 7(1784) and Mozart's Symphony in G minor (1788); it supports Ein-stein's opinion that Mozart "knew and valued Viotti's work." 9

E x . 2 Viotti: Concert No 7 (1784)

Mozart: Symphony in G minor (1788)M^rr^iTflJCCCP

ty | i ' » i [* | ' 'ft i-"T^7fJ r*r I '

As for the "military" concerto movement, Viotti was clearly not itsoriginator, nor did he use it as unequivocally as his French disciples,notably Kreutzer. Einstein's statement that "there is hardly one amonghis twenty-nine concertos that does not have all the characteristics ofsuch an ideal march" 10 is certainly far too broad. Actually, Viotti'smusical temperament tended towards lyricism, which is apparent in hisearliest "Italian" concerto (published as No. 3 in 1782 at Paris but com-posed before his arrival in France) and in the nine "London" concertos(Nos. 21 to 29), written after 1792. Only Viotti's Parisian concertos(Nos. 4 through 20, possibly also Nos. 1 and 2) u show an inclinationtowards first movements with a military pulse, the "contribution ofFrench genius to European music";12 but even here there are manyexceptions.

8Abert's statement (Mozart, I, 509) that the French violin concerto "underViotti" influenced Mozart's violin concertos, is a chronological impossibility as faras Viotti is concerned.

9 A. Einstein, Mozart, New York, 1945, p. 282.10 Ibid., p. 305.

'? The chronology of Viotti's earliest concertos is not entirely clarified, despitethe efforts of Giazotto {op. cit.). See also E. Chappell White, G. B. Viotti and HisViolin Concertos (dissertation, Princeton Univ., 1957).

12 Einstein, Essays, p. 247.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 435

Proceeding from the fact that Mozart's piano concertos were pub-lished later than the violin concertos of Viotti, Einstein makes the fol-lowing bold statement, "It was from Viotti, and presumably not fromMozart, that Beethoven derived the idea of a 'military' first movementfor all his concertos." 13 While this seems a circuitous way, one must keepin mind the victorious sweep of the French concerto. By 1795, whenBeethoven began his Piano Concerto in B-flat, Op. 19, the Viotti conceptwas the accepted model. The public expected a specific concerto type,and Beethoven complied—to a certain extent, as we shall see.

Schering describes the French Concerto as follows:

Attuned to brilliance and splendor, magnificence and dignity, its characterreveals itself at the outset in the pompous march ritornels . . . symbols of a partlyheroic, partly lowly soldatesque, mentality . . . The French Violin Concerto is aproduct of the mood of the Revolution, a blood brother of the youthful operasof Cherubini, Mehul, representing the best qualities of the French nation.14

The affinity between the French concerto and the French "revolutionary"opera is an interesting point. In fact, Kreutzer, aside from his activitiesas a violinist, was one of the successful opera composers of the 1790's;and Viotti, Rode, and Baillot, too, were deeply involved in operaticactivities. Actually, however, the assertive march character of the Frenchconcerto was established well before the Revolution of 1789. In general,French music of the 178O's foreshadowed in its dramatic intensity theturbulent and aggressive mood of the coming decade; thus, the Parisianconcertos of Viotti charted the course for decades to come. While Viottisaid farewell to the "lowly soldatesque mentality" in 1792, his Frenchdisciples continued and elaborated his tradition. As the social pattern ofthe audience changed, the concerto—like the opera—acquired a nervousintensity, a militant boldness, a technical brilliance geared to impressan unruly public.

Yet, to say that "the soloist of the Concert Spirituel was solely in-terested in the display of technical artifices" 15 is to belittle the musicalvalues of the French Concerto. Not until the late 1820's—mainly underthe impact of Paganini—did virtuosity become the chief purpose of theconcerto. In its earlier stages, under the influence of Viotti and his school,the concerto aspired to high musical standards. Indeed it is reported that

13 Ibid., p. 246."Schering, op. cit., p. 169.15 Ibid.

436 The Musical Quarterly

the opening tutti of Viotti's Concerto No. 18 received as much applauseas a symphony of Haydn.

Structurally, the French Concerto followed the established three-movement pattern; occasionally, the second movement led without in-terruption into the finale, a principle that Beethoven used also. The firstmovement was usually divided into four orchestral ritornels and threesolos. A march-like opening was traditional but not obligatory; quite afew concertos begin lyrically while others have the impassioned sweepand agitation of the contemporary operatic overture. The long-delayedentrance of the soloist was treated with great brilliance and was usuallybased on new thematic material, although occasionally the first orchestraltheme was used. The second solo stressed a contrast in mode and anintensification of expression and brilliance; it was customarily a freefantasia, very rarely a "development" of preceding material. The lastsolo contained a shortened recapitulation and a cadenza within the codaof the orchestra. Deviations from this norm were rare but significant:a slow introduction (Viotti No. 16), the linking of second and thirdmovements (Viotti No. 20; Kreutzer Nos. 5 and 7), the elimination ofan introductory tutti (Kreutzer No. 7),16 or of an orchestral coda, whichpermitted the soloist to end a movement (Kreutzer No. 8 ) . " In Viotti'sConcerto No. 20 we find a thematic link between the first and thirdmovements. Remarkable, too, is the high number of concertos in theminor mode—ten out of twenty-nine in the case of Viotti.18

It is primarily the march-like character of the first movement thatlinks Beethoven's concerto concept with that of the contemporary Frenchschool. Viotti "had met it in French music and developed it within thisframework" 19 though its full realization came through Kreutzer andRode. Beethoven's meter (like that of Viotti and Rode) is usually four-four while Kreutzer prefers alle breve.2" Of Beethoven's seyen completedconcertos (five for piano, one for violin, and the Triple Concerto),the Piano Concerto No. 5—the so-called Emperor Concerto—has themost pronounced military bearing, perhaps a reflection of the war-torn

16 A device used earlier by Mozart, in his Piano Concerto in E-flat, K. 271.17 Also in Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor, K. 491.18 Mozart wrote only two concertos in minor, K. 466 and K. 491.18 Einstein, Essays, p. 246.20 The first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 3 is usually marked alia breve

(see Complete Works Edition and the Kinsky catalogue). However, Kullak's edition(Leipzig, 1882) states explicitly that Beethoven's MS (preserved in the then RoyalLibrary in Berlin) is marked four-four.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 437

year 1809, during which Beethoven also wrote two marches for militaryband. Brisk and march-like, too, are the first movements of his youthfulpiano concertos No. 1 in C and No. 2 in B-flat; the first, "a revolutionaryquickmarch, should have earned Beethoven, like Schiller, an honorarycitizenship in the French Republic." 21 The Triple Concerto, Op. 56, isactually a symphonie concertante, a genre particularly popular in Parisduring the late 18th and early 19th centuries; here Beethoven comesclosest to the French concept. The dark-hued mood of the Piano Con-certo No. 3, in C minor, seems at first far removed from any march-likeaffinity; only when the first theme reappears in the major mode—firstin E-flat played by clarinets and horns, then in C M by horns and trum-pets—does the military character assert itself. Nor should one overlookthe drum-like motif in the third measure, which the timpani intone soominously in the coda.

A drum motif, too, provides an implied march character to theotherwise lyrical Violin Concerto, Op. 61. This character becomes morepronounced if one examines the cadenza that Beethoven wrote for thepiano transcription of this work. There the timpani join the soloist inan "intrusive little four-square quick march" which, as Tovey says, maybe "a topical allusion to Fidelio."23 Even the transcendental Piano Con-certo No. 4, in G major (composed in the same year—1806—as theViolin Concerto) has its share of sublimated march music in the secondsubject of the first movement'and even in the finale.

In his first two published piano concertos (Opp. 15 and 19)Beethoven adhered more closely to established contemporary models,whether by Mozart or Viotti. But even in these works, composed forhis own use as a concert pianist, he went beyond the understandingof his audience. The Bohemian musician J. W. Tomaschek heardBeethoven play both concertos in 1798 and criticized "his frequent dar-ing deviations from one motive to another, whereby the organic con-nection, the gradual development of idea was put aside." 2* Beethovenhimself disparaged his first two concertos as soon as he had completedthe C minor, which he withheld from publication for four years, until1804.25

21 Einstein, Essays, p . 247 .32 Einstein, ibid., refers to this p lace erroneously as in " D ma jo r . "23 D . F . Tovey, Essays and Lectures on Music, L o n d o n , 1949, p . 3 2 1 .24 Sonneck, op. cit., p . 22 .45 See Beethoven's letters to Hofmeister of Dec. 15, 1800, and January, 1801;

also to Breitkopf & Hartel, April 22, 1801.

438 The Musical Quarterly

With this work, Beethoven freed himself from most contemporaryconventions. The pulse may still be faintly military, but here the simi-larity with the French school ends. Beethoven broadens the scope of thefirst movement and expands it to symphonic proportions; he combinesa thematic development with the free fantasia of the French; he restoresand strengthens the principle of equality and rivalry between orchestraand soloist. At the same time he achieves greater concentration andeconomy of thematic material, which is shared by orchestra and soloist.

Of Beethoven's remaining concertos, each is a marvel of inner or-ganization, a study in itself. Even where certain novel procedures wereanticipated by others, Beethoven remains supreme. Only in the TripleConcerto does he seem to bow occasionally to the conventions of theday, but even here the final Rondo alia polacca is a far cry from thecustomary French display piece.

Einstein's assertion that Beethoven used the "musical category ofthe military . . . only in the concerto" 26 is but conditionally acceptable.True, the concerto is the only genre in which Beethoven is consistentin his use of an idealized march rhythm. However, the occasional useof such rhythms in categories other than the concerto is very frequent;we can find them in the symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 9, in the triosOp. 8 and Op. 11, in the quartets Op. 59, No. 2, and Op. 132, in theViolin Sonata Op. 30, No. 2, in the piano sonatas Op. 26 and Op. 101;in fact, his very first work, written at the age of eleven, was a set ofpiano variations on a march by Dressier. Beethoven's two "heroic"funeral marches (in Op. 26 and in the Third Symphony) bring tomind the two great funeral compositions of the French Revolution—theMarc he lugubre by Gossec (for Mirabeau's funeral in 1791) and theHymne funebre by Cherubini (in memory of General Hoche, 1797).Textual or programmatic considerations motivated the march interludesin Fidelio, in the Agnus Dei of the Missa solemnis, in the Battle Sym-phony, Op. 91, and in the finale of the Ninth Symphony. These addedto his numerous marches for piano four-hands and for wind instrumentsshow that the singular fascination military rhythms had for Beethovenwent far beyond the confines of the concerto. Incidentally, many of thesemarches are marked alia breve, which refutes Einstein's curiously rigidstatement that "the military measure is four-four time." ™

Returning to the concerto, we find that Beethoven's slow movements26 Eins te in , Essays, p . 246.27 Ibid., p. 249.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 439

have very little in common with the conventional French romance, as itwas usually called. Viotti and his disciples kept the slow movements briefand comparatively unadorned—one solo framed by two brief orchestralritornels, with the embellishments added by the performer who, in mostcases, was the composer. Beethoven's slow movements belong to his mostimaginative and sensitive creations. His melodic line does not permit anyimprovisation; the elaborations are worked into the text with minutecare.

Closest to contemporary taste were Beethoven's final movements. Inthe French Concerto, the rondeau finales are full of piquancy, bril-liance, and wistful humor. From their foreign travels the virtuoso com-posers brought back tunes and dance rhythms that were incorporatedinto the finales; boleros, polonaises, and rondos in the Spanish, Russian,and Hungarian manner were the fashion of the day. Beethoven acknowl-edged this trend in the gypsy-like interlude of the finale of the PianoConcerto No. 1, in the Rondo alia polacca of the Triple Concerto, inthe rondo of the Violin Concerto with its perhaps slightly trivial G minorepisode. Contrary to the popular concept, however, were such sectionsas the fugato in the Piano Concerto No. 3 or the heavily syncopatedrhythms of the rondo of the Emperor Concerto.

While Beethoven's piano works generally reflect his own keyboardvirtuosity, he was on less familiar grounds in his violin compositions.As a youth in Bonn he played the violin and the viola; in Vienna, hetook violin lessons and tried some of his own violin sonatas with Ferdi-nand Ries; the results were "awful music."28 His collaboration withViennese violinists like Franz Clement, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, and JosephBoehm was useful though he was inclined to scoff at advice. More casualwas Beethoven's contact with visiting virtuosos, yet he may have gatheredsome valuable information about the French violin style through thevisits of Kreutzer, Rode, and Baillot. Examples 3 and 4 show a certainmelodic affinity although Beethoven's interest in the French violinschool was primarily concerned with the technical aspects of theinstrument.

Kreutzer came to Vienna in 1798, accompanying the French am-bassador, General Bernadotte. Beethoven, who at that time was a fre-quent visitor at the French legation, may have met and heard Kreutzerthere. In 1804 Beethoven remembered Kreutzer as "a good, amiable

28 F. Ries, in Sonneck, op. cit., p. 58.

440 The Musical Quarterly

E x . 3 K r » " t " ' - : Concerto No. 2 (e. 1785)4 Allegro mooWato

.Beethoven, Violin Sonata, 0p.E4 (l80l)^Allegro«- ' — '

|Whoven:Duo forjfcola and Cello (e.l79S-98)rit f | f f

Beethoven: Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4 (cJfJOO)

man who during his stay here gave me much pleasure. His unaffectednessand natural manner are more to my taste than all extSrieur or intirieurof most virtuosos." Beethoven also thought highly of Kreutzer's musicalability, for he decided to dedicate his Violin Sonata Op. 47 to him."Since the sonata is written for a first-rate player, the dedication is allthe more fitting." w The work was originally composed for the violinistGeorge Bridgetower; the dedication to Kreutzer was an afterthought,30

planned as a surprise to the recipient. Possibly Kreutzer resented thissequence of events; at any rate, he did not acknowledge the dedication orplay the sonata in public. Obviously Beethoven misjudged his "goodfriend," for Kreutzer continued to show hostility towards Beethoven'sworks when the conductor Frangois Habeneck tried to introduce theSecond Symphony to the Parisian public. According to Berlioz, Kreutzerfound Beethoven's Sonata Op. 47 "outrageously unintelligible." 31 Thewhole concept of equal partnership may have struck him as absurd; inthose days, the virtuoso expected preferential treatment even in chambermusic. On the other hand, this sonata certainly did not lack brilliance;in fact, Beethoven had planned it "in a very concertante style, in themanner of a concerto." M While the second and third33 movements show

2 9 Both quotations from letter to Simrock, Oct . 4 , 1804.3 0 T h e latest ( 5 th ) edition of Grove's Dictionary contains contradictory state-

ments concerning this work. In the article Kreutzer the facts are stated correctly,

while the entry Kreutzer Sonata is wrong.3 1 H . Berlioz, Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie, Paris, 1844, p . 263f.3 2 In un stilo molto concertato, quasi come d'un Concerto, wrote Beethoven on

the inside of his sketchbook of 1803 (described by G. N o t t e b o h m ) .3 3 T h e finale of the Kreutzer Sonata was originally written for the Vio l in

Sonata O p . 30 , N o . 1.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 441

an idiomatic treatment of the violin, the first movement is "outrageously"awkward; furthermore, the piano tends to overpower the violin, whichis often held in too low a register.34

Beethoven did not compose another violin sonata for many years.The completion of his tenth and last sonata (Op. 96) for piano andviolin was hastened by the arrival of the famous French violinist PierreRode, who visited Vienna in 1812. The first movement seems to havebeen written earlier; now, Beethoven set out to complete the work fora performance by Rode and Archduke Rudolph. Working on the finale,the composer said in a letter: "In writing it, I must consider Rode'sstyle of playing. We are fond of rushing passages in our finales, yet thatdoes not suit Rode, and—it really troubles me somewhat."35 Why"rushing passages" should have bothered a virtuoso of Rode's rank ishard to understand; certainly Rode's own compositions contain moretechnical difficulties than Beethoven ever cared to incorporate in hissonatas. True, in 1812 Rode was already on the decline, and his colleagueLouis Spohr "missed his former boldness in conquering great difficul-ties."36 If Rode was disappointing in his own music, he must have beeneven more so in a work as alien to him as Beethoven's Op. 96. Thecomposer was frankly concerned; after the first performance, and priorto a second, he decided to send the violin part to Rode for further study."I hope he won't mind my sending the part. I wish to God there werea need to beg forgiveness for doing so; matters would certainly be inbetter shape."37 A contemporary review stated that the piano part (playedby the Archduke) was performed "with more understanding of the workand with more soul" than the violin part; "Mr. Rode's greatness doesnot seem to lie in this type of music but in the performance of the con-certo."38 Curiously, in an otherwise introspective composition, Beethovensatisfied his desire for a "rushing passage" in the final measures of thesonata, which contain an extremely exposed run. The amusing similarityof Beethoven's finale theme with a tune from an operetta by J. A. Hiller(Der lustige Schuster) was pointed out by Nottebohm.39

34 Car l Czerny's unverified story (see Thayer-Krehbiel , I I , 10) according towhich Beethoven presumably borrowed a theme of Kreutzer for the Sonata O p . 47(closing subject, first movement ) is a myth .

35 Letter to Archduke Rudolph, Dec, 1812.38 Louis Spohr, Autobiography, London, 1878, I, 165."Letter to Archduke Rudolph, Jan., 1813.38G16ggl's Musikzeitung, Jan. 4, 1813.38 G. Nottebohm, Beethoveniana, Leipzig, 1872, pp. 26-30.

442 The Musical Quarterly

More impersonal was the meeting with the French violinist PierreBaillot, who was introduced to Beethoven in 1805. Ten years later,Baillot's name is mentioned in a letter from Karl Amenda to his oldfriend Beethoven:

There, in Mitau, I also heard Baillot from Paris. Oh, what a powerful instru-ment is the violin when it speaks through Baillot's soul . . . He was in Vienna,spoke with enthusiasm about you, preferred your compositions to all others, andadmitted that he played for you only once, but in great embarrassment . . .40

This letter, written in 1815, gives no indication as to when Amendaspoke to Baillot; they must have met when Baillot passed throughCourland on one of his journeys to Russia. Baillot's professed enthusiasmfor Beethoven was no idle talk. In 1814 he established chamber-musicconcerts in Paris (modelled after Schuppanzigh's concerts in Vienna),which contributed decisively to the understanding of Beethoven in Paris.In 1828, during the first season of the Societe des Concerts du Con-servatoire, Baillot played the completely forgotten Violin Concerto ofBeethoven, which, since its premiere in 1806, had received only oneperformance, in Berlin, in 1812. Another violinist of the French school,Henri Vieuxtemps, played it in Vienna in 1834. But not until thethirteen-year-old Joseph Joachim performed the concerto in London in1844, with Mendelssohn as conductor, did the work begin to win popu-larity. As late as 1855, the eminent Louis Spohr—who rejected the lateworks of Beethoven while enthusiastically approving Richard Wagner—said to Joachim after a performance of the Beethoven Concerto, "Thisis all very nice, but now I'd like to hear you play a real violin piece."41

Insensitive as the judgment of Spohr may sound, it was conditionedby the virtuoso practices of the early 19th century. In those days fewvirtuosos were interested in performing concertos other than their own;their display pieces had to be tailored to their "style." Despite its uniquebeauty, the Violin Concerto of Beethoven suffers from the disparitybetween a towering musical concept and a comparatively unidiomatictreatment of the solo instrument. Beethoven's knowledge of the violin,though based on actual playing experience, cannot be compared withhis creative affinity for the piano. His violin passages are conventionaland seem at times to be derived from the keyboard, an impression thatmay be due to the proximity of the Piano Concerto in G major, com-

40 Thayer-Deiters, Beethoven, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1911, I I I , 502.41 A. Moser, Joseph Joachim, Berlin, 1910, I I , 290.

lltldil-MAKIt-tKAMlHS HAIU.OT IMC SAI tS

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From the Author's collection

A Letter from Viotti to Baillot, July 29, 1823

Beethoven and the French Violin School 443

posed during the same year. Beethoven was certainly aware of theproblem; the original score of the Violin Concerto, as described byTovey, "assigns four staves to the violin solo, in order to leave room foralterations; and in many places all the four staves have been filled.""Revealing, too, is a comparison between the violin solo part and the solopart in the transcription for piano solo and orchestra, where idiomaticadjustments are apparent.43 In addition, Beethoven consulted the con-temporary concerto repertory of Viotti, Kreutzer, and Rode, who weremasters in exploiting the technical resources of their instrument. Thefollowing examples will show certain violinistic similarities. Brokenoctaves, which Beethoven favors in the first and last movements of his

Ex 5Viotti: Concerto No. I (e.l782L /

f Mr 7 7 IT rBeettioven i Violin , 1st solo(l806K r±

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Ex. 6 Kreuheri Concerto No.6 ( t 1790)

Ex. 7 Viotti. Rondo, of Concertos No.l and6

42 D . F . Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis (Concertos), London , 1936, p . 87 .43 See O. Jonas, Das Autograph von Beethovens V iolinkonzert, in Zeitschrift

fur Musikwissenschaft, 1930-31, p. 443f.; also F. Munster, Beethovens Bearbeitungeneigener Werke, in Neues Beethoven-Jahrbuch, VI (1935), 159f. Transcriptions of thistype were not uncommon during that period. Certain violin concertos by Viotti werearranged as piano concertos by noted pianists like Steibelt and Dussek; other concertosby Viotti, originally written for piano, were transcribed for the violin by the composer.A double concerto Op. 3 by Viotti for violin solo, piano solo, and orchestra, discoveredby the writer of this article and recently performed in New York and Chicago,turned out to be an anonymous transcription of Viotti's Violin Concerto No. 9omitting the slow movement. See also Marta Walter, Ein Klavierkonzert von JeanBaptiste Viotti, in Schweizerische Musikzeitung, March, 1955, p. 99f.

444 The Musical Quarterly

concerto, were used in similar fashion by Viotti and Kreutzer (Exx. 5-7).A favorite device of Viotti was the elaboration of a melodic line in tripletpassages; it reappears prominently in Beethoven's first movement (Ex.8). Kreutzer, too, had a personal manner in writing embellishing pas-

E x . 8 ViotH:ConcerfoNo.l,lstmo*pisnt

Beethoven* Violin Concerto. I** movement1

sages which seems to have impressed Beethoven (Exx. 9 and 10). Rode's

E x . O Kreutzer: Concerto No.4 (l79O) 4 Kreutter: Concerto No.l3(d8O4)/ / / i . _ x—~ '"$c+. >

E x . 10 Kreutier; Concerto No. 16 ( c I80S)

Beethoven: Violin Concer+o (1806) !

technique was too intricately violinistic to interest Beethoven; only occa-sionally is there a faint relationship, as in the following two excerpts(Exx. 11 and 12). In general, Beethoven's technical demands are more

Ex. 11Rode: Concerto No.I (1790.'

a2nd .theme

I 2nd theme '

modest than those of the Parisian school, for he uses the violin passagesnot for display but primarily, as elaborations of thematic material

Beethoven and the French Violin School 445

presented by the orchestra. Thus he has no interest in the characteristicpotentialities of various bow strokes—a field in which Rode was un-

Ex. 12Rode: Concerto No.6

fdisputed master; most bowings in Beethoven's solo part were added bylater editors. Double stops are almost entirely avoided, although aneffective passage in the finale seems to point towards a Viotti device

Ex. 13Viotti: Concerto No.S (first ngvenwit)

(Ex. 13). Nor does Beethoven care to exploit the rich register of theG string, except for the juxtaposition of the Rondo theme—an effectivecontrast previously tried by Viotti (Ex. 14). In general, however,

Ex. 14. Viotti = Concerto No.6 (1782), Firale l r

Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Rondo « —

Beethoven shows a predilection for the silvery high register of the Estring. Whether the violinist Franz Clement, for whom Beethoven wrotethe concerto, was consulted in matters of technique, is difficult to ascer-tain. Tovey believes that Beethoven "took pains" in meeting Clement'scriticism and considers the autograph of the concerto, with its manyalternate passages, "a lesson in the correct attitude of a composer towardsa player." ** Directly or indirectly, Clement may well have influenced thetexture of the solo part. His playing was graceful rather than vigorous,

44 Tovey, op. vit., p. 87.

446 The Musical Quarterly

his tone small but expressive, and he possessed unfailing assurance andpurity in high positions and exposed entrances. Perhaps in keeping withthe temperament and technical idiosyncrasies of his interpreter, Beethovenstressed the lyrical aspects of the violin while shifting the dramaticaccents into the orchestra.

Despite its implied march pulse, the first movement of Beethoven'sViolin Concerto is far removed from the contemporary concept. It isconceived along symphonic lines; the orchestra carries most of the them-atic material while the solo violin appears at times almost incidental. Theidea of embedding, as it were, the solo part into the orchestral texturewas novel and alien to the virtuoso concept of the 19th century; itfound no imitators except Brahms. Another departure from conventionwas the withholding of the cantabile theme from the soloist until thecoda of the movement. The formidable and unusual length of the firstmovement is caused by two full expositions; by a development sectionexpanded through the addition of a new episode; and by a rather fullrecapitulation with cadenza and coda. The lack of contrast betweenthe two principal themes is mitigated somewhat by the opening four-fourmotif, which provides a measure of dramatic contrast.

The Larghetto, perhaps the most perfectly realized movement of thethree, has in its closing section an affinity with Viotti's most famouswork, the Concerto No. 22.** It is noticeable not only in the melodicline and supporting harmonies but in the whole manner in which the

E x . 15 VioHh Adagio from Concerto No. 22 (1793)

f T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T TTTTTT TT TTT•. Larghetto from « Vtolln ConcerfojQg06)

45 Brahms was particularly fond of Viotti's Concerto No. 22, to which heseems to allude in his own Violin Concerto; he appears to have been more en-thusiastic about it than about even the Beethoven Concerto. See A. Moser, Geschichtedes Violinspiels, Berlin, 1923, p. 391f.

Beethoven and the French Violin School 447

phrase is placed within the context of the movement (Ex. 15). Theforte preparation of the cadenza at the end also seems to have a certainrelationship.

Beethoven's Rondo finale approximates perhaps most closely to thecontemporary taste. The theme (possibly by Clement)46 is not of startlingoriginality, and it is used somewhat repetitiously. The contemporarycritic who objected to the "infinite repetitions of some trivial spots [which]became quite tiring"47 may have had the Rondo in mind. From the pointof view of violin technique, the last movement is definitely more idio-matic and inventive than the first.

When the Concerto is considered as a whole, one must admit thatwhile Beethoven may not have matched his French colleagues in theefficient handling of the solo part, in the end his genius was bound torelegate the violinistic shortcomings into the background. Indeed, one isnot aware of them unless deliberately scanning the work from that pointof view.

48 "An old Viennese tradition names Clement as the originator [Urheber] of therondo theme." Schering, op. cit., p. 204.

47 Wiener Theaterzeitung, Dec. 1806. Quoted in Moser, op. cit., p. 507.