Unheard Beethoven - F

Okay, I know every person on this site has heard or played this piece. It happens to be one of Beethoven's most popular pieces, and that is very ironic considering what I've found in some light research.

A midi of the relatively unknown revised version (by Beethoven himself, this is different from the version we all know) ->

http://www.unheardbeethoven.org/search/search.pl?piece=frel1822.mid

When it was written and how it is catalogued:

Originally sketched in 1808 and forgotten until 1810 according to some sources, the piece is of the type "Bagatelle", as short piece usually in a loose rondo form, and is usually catalogued as "WoO. 59 - Bagatelle in A minor" (WoO: Werke ohne Opunzul, or "work without opus number"). Considering that Beethoven gave his own opus numbers only to his more major works, F

I dislike Fur Elise even more now. I listened to the C minor symphony (Hess 298) on that site. The completed orchestration is Beethoven-like at least. Maybe it's just me but I want some more proof before I'm convinced it's all legit. A project of this scope should have more than just midis. Why aren't there any live recordings up? There's no scores, facsimiles, photos of the originals. I demand to see the messy ink dammit! :P

Most of the works are not published yet. And those that have been published (well after Beethoven's death, of course) have been forgotten.

I'm convinced it's all legit. Composers are messy people and leave stuff laying around. Literally and figuratively. Many composers wrote more than we are aware, I'm sure. Think of all the stuff that Beethoven may have trashed. Maybe he didn't like it, but just think that people today, regarding Beethoven so greatly, would revere it like other other of his works. It is just unfortunate that these seldom heard works have yet to be pushed into the light.

Interesting; I'm not sure I like it better, but after getting used to the fact that it's "different", it's not bad.

Nice story. That little sequence to the middle part is written so poorly though. I like the other version more. Well, I'm not a big fan of Fur Elise. People always ask me to play this stupid piece for them, I get so annoyed... They seem to like Fur Elise more than Chopin Ballade no. 4 or anything else.

Well duh... play Chopin's 2nd Ballade and they would love you. It has what the 4th doesn't: beauty that everyone can appreciate.

Anyways, I don't care what Beethoven thought which was the right version. I think the standard version, the one everyone plays, is uber better than this. I'm not at all for that "do what the composer intended" crap, unless the composer expressly said that or is still alive.

wow! how to make an insignificant piece even more... ummm... well... insignificant.

Good grief, not ANOTHER rendition of this piece....