Beethoven's mandolin compositions were rediscovered through the research of Alexander Wheelock Thayer and later Arthur Chitz, who investigated the musical archives of the Clam-Gallas family in Prague.
Composer Biography
Beethoven dedicated several mandolin works and his celebrated aria 'Ah! Perfido' (op. 65) to Josephine Clary-Aldringen, a talented amateur mandolin player he met in Prague.
Instruments
The term 'Brescian mandolin' (or 'Cremonese') refers to a four-string, single-course mandolin model, praised for its rich and full sound, which is a descendant of the lute family.
Instruments
Bartolomeo Bortolazzi, a mandolin virtuoso, wrote the first mandolin teaching method in German, 'Anweisung die Mandoline' (1805), where he favored the four-string Brescian mandolin.
Historical Context
The mandolin was notably popular in Prague, with significant chamber music works for the instrument found in catalogues of major Czech composers like Jan Ladislav Dussek, Leopold Koželuh, and Karl Stamitz.
Interpretation
The performers chose two different fortepianos for this recording: a 1792 Walter copy for Beethoven's repertoire and an 1819 Graf copy for Hummel and Bortolazzi's works.
