L. van Beethoven, First edition of the Piano Trios op.70, no.1 (the "Ghost") and no.2: Leipzig, 1809

BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN

Deux Trios pour Pianoforte, Violon et Violoncelle composées et dédiés à Madame la Comtesse Marie d'Erdödy, née Comtesse Niszky...Oeuv: 70 No.[1], Pr. 2 Rthr, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, [1809], bound with an early edition of the Trios op.1 [1803]

FIRST EDITION OF THE TRIOS OP.70 NO.1 (THE "GHOST") AND OP.70 NO.2, engraved parts for piano (27 & 31pp.), violin (6 & 8pp.) and cello (5 & 7pp.), plate numbers 1339 and 1340, opus numbers completed by hand, price on no.1 altered to read: "1 Rthlr. 12 g" (price erased on no.2)

3 volumes, folio (c.31 x 25cm), Op.70 bound after op.1 (plate no.38), the piano parts in late nineteenth-century cloth-backed marbled boards, the string parts in blue wrappers, ownership inscription to first title and violin part ("Marie Lichtenstein 1830"), manuscript labels by Ernst Rudorff, a few corrections in pencil, together with additional untrimmed (but later) copies of the string parts for op.70 no.2 (c.34 x 26cm)

This first edition is rarely offered for sale: we have seen none at auction for over twenty years.

The op.70 set contains Beethoven's first mature piano trios, notable for the equal prominence given to all three playing parts. The intensely slow, gloomy and dramatic second movement in the first trio gives rise to the name the "Ghost Trio". 

Beethoven worked on the slow movement on a leaf from 1808 that also contains sketches for a projected opera on Macbeth (Landsberg 10, p.133). It was this ghostly connection with Macbeth that inspired Samuel Beckett to include several quotations from Beethoven's slow movement in his 1977 play for television "Ghost Trio". In another sketch for Macbeth, Beethoven refers instead to Shakespeare's witches.

LITERATURE:

N. Gertsch et al, Beethoven-Werk-Verzeichnis (2014), p.392; Hirsch IV 313; not in Hoboken. See Johnson, Tyson & Winter, The Beethoven Sketchbooks (1986), pp.171 and 213.

PROVENANCE:

Marie Lichtenstein (1817-1890) and Betty Pistor (1808-1887); Ernst Rudorff (his inscriptions to labels: "...N^o 1. D dur Lichtenstein'scher-Nach. / N^o2. Es dur Nachlass meiner Mutter.")