Beethoven House in Bonn acquires the musician’s original score

Bonn. The Beethoven House in Bonn acquired an important original manuscript by the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), the last known to be in private hands. This is a complete movement of string quartet no. 13 in B flat major opus 130, composed in 1825, announced the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States of Germany in Berlin. The manuscript consists of nine sheets with 15 pages of score.

The manuscript shows that even a genius like Beethoven worked hard on the composition. For example, when he reviewed his notes, he erased them with a knife and sometimes made holes in the paper. Violinist Daniel Hope, president of the Beethoven-Haus, explained that he was able to acquire the manuscript with state and private contributions.

The Beethoven House is located in the composer’s birthplace. It includes a museum, a concert hall, a research center and an archive.

The cultural center has the largest Beethoven collection in the world, with scores, paintings, instruments and everyday objects, such as the ear trumpets used by the almost deaf composer. A special exhibition on the new acquisition is planned from June to August 2025. The manuscript is the fourth movement Alla Danza tedesca (German dance) of the seven that make up the string quartet. The document has a checkered history. It was in the hands of the Jewish Petschek family since the 1920s. The family was persecuted by the Nazis and left Czechoslovakia in 1938. Their property was confiscated. In 2022 it was returned to the descendants, who agreed to sell the manuscript to the Beethoven-Haus.

The curator of the collection of Beethoven works, Julia Ronge, thanked that Petschek’s descendants have decided to bequeath this treasure to a German institution, despite their family history.

Composer and clarinetist Jörg Widmann paid tribute to the string quartet opus 130, in particular to the part whose manuscript reaches Bonn, describing this movement as rhythmically very complex, voluminous and sharp.