Beethoven 250: dances

Cover art in Warner Classics: Beethoven: Complete Works: CD 16: Dances II. Joseph Anton Koch (1768–1839): Das Berner Oberland. 1815. Painting, oil on canvas, 70 x 89 cm. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. From: Wikidata. Please click to enlarge the image!

Beethoven: The Complete Works (80 CD). Warner Classics / © 2019 Parlophone Records Limited. Also available on Spotify etc. I bought my box set from Fuga at Helsinki Music Centre.
    Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827.
    Beethoven 250 / corona lockdown listening.

CD 15/80  Dances I

WoO 3: Gratulations-Menuett (1822)
WoO 7: 12 Menuette für Orchester (1795)
WoO 8: 12 Deutsche Tänze (1795)
    Philharmonica Hungarica / Hans Ludwig Hirsch, 1975

WoO 15: 12 Ländler für zwei Violinen und Violoncello
    Consortium Classicum, 1976
    Werner Grobholz, Dietmar Forster, violins
    Helmar Stiehler, cello

CD 16/80  Dances II

WoO 9: 6 Menuette für zwei Violinen und Violoncello
WoO 10: 6 Menuette für Orchester
WoO 14: 12 Kontretänze (1803)
    Philharmonica Hungarica / Hans Ludwig Hirsch, 1975

WoO 17: Mödlinger Tänze (1819), 11 dances
    Consortium Classicum, 1976
    Robert Dohn, Gerhard Kittelmann, Renate Greiss, flutes
    Dieter Klöcker, Waldemar Wandel, clarinets
    Karl-Otto Hartmann, bassoon
    Nikolaus Grüger, Klaus Wallendorf, horns
    Werner Grobholz, Dietmar Forster, violins
    Walter Meuter, double bass

WoO = Werk ohne Opusnummer.

AA: I don't remember who said that music should not stray too far away from march and dance, but Beethoven certainly didn't. The sense of rhythm is innate in his personal and ambitious compositions, and in addition he composed rhythm-based Gebrauchsmusik of different kinds. CD 11 in this box set contains six pieces by Beethoven for a military march band.

CD's 15 and 16 consist entirely of dances. The menuets have mostly a stately and festive court ambiance. They reflect Beethoven's roots in the conventions of Baroque, Rococo and Classicism, but a personal voice, with an affinity to Mozart, is heard for instance in 6 Menuette WoO 9, No. 4, and 6 Menuette WoO 10, No. 2 and 12 Kontretänze WoO14, No. 5. The last-mentioned contradance has even survived as a pop tune and a mobile phone ringtone. 12 Kontretänze WoO14, No. 7 is a variation of the Prometheus / Eroica theme which obsessed Beethoven in these years.

My favourite set of dances is the last one on these records: Mödlinger Tänze. Tradition has it that when Beethoven retired to Mödling to compose Missa solemnis, a band of musicians playing at the inn Zu den zwei Raben asked him to write dance tunes, and he did compose 11 pieces, including waltzes, menuets and Länderer. There is a gentle, tender and playful approach in these dances, played with affection by Consortium Classicum.

These tunes are light entertainment, sometimes not far from what we now know as Kaufhausmusik or Muzak.

These are tunes of Wiener Gemütlichkeit, Viennese charm, a counterpart to the Danish-Norwegian concept of hygge.