 |
Composers DatebookAuthor: American Public Media
Composers Datebook is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each. Language: en Genres: Music, Music History Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Beethover (sic) and Punto
Friday, 17 April, 2026
SynopsisThe month of April in the year 1800 was an especially busy one for Ludwig van Beethoven. On the second of April at his first big orchestral concert in Vienna, Beethoven premiered his Symphony No. 1, a new piano concerto, and his chamber septet. Composing, writing out the parts, and rehearsing all that music was no small task.On today’s date that same month, Beethoven appeared in Vienna once again, this time as piano accompanist for the popular Bohemian horn virtuoso, Johann Wenzel Stich, who went by the more marketable Italian “stage name” of Giovanni Punto.The pre-concert announcements for the Punto recital promised that Beethoven would contribute a new work for the occasion — but, apparently still recovering from his own big concert, Beethoven didn’t get around to writing the promised Horn Sonata for Punto until the day before the recital.Beethoven and Punto took the new Sonata with them for a concert in Budapest the following month. The press in Hungary had heard of Punto, but not Beethoven, whose name they didn’t even get right: “Who is this Beethover (sic)?” one press notice read, noting, “The history of German music is not acquainted with such a name. Punto, of course, is very well known…”Music Played in Today's ProgramLudwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Horn Sonata; Hermann Baumann, horn; Leonard Hokanson, piano; Philips 416 816
