• Nicanor Zabaleta plays the Variations on a Swiss air, WoO 64

    I have admired the Spanish harpist Niconar Zabaleta ever since I discovered in the old record collection of my father his performances of Handel’s Concerto op.4 nr.6 (with the great Grandjany cadenza in the slow movement) and Debussy’s Danses Sacrées et Profanes (Ferenc Fricsay conducting, DGG LPE 17115). These recordings …

    Zabaleta-WoO62

  • Author of Canon in C, Hess Anhang 60, Identified

    The author of the Canon in C, Hess Anhang 60, who has remained unknown for almost two centuries, has at last been identified as Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690-1749). Several canons can be found in Beethoven’s manuscripts dating from the time when he studied counterpoint with Albrechtsberger in Vienna in 1793-94. …

    Stoelzel's Practical Demonstration par. 23 (Hess Anhang 60)

  • Beethoven´s rediscovered hymn ´Pange lingua´

    Recently Professor Barry Cooper, of Manchester University, famous for his reconstruction of the 10th Symphony, discovered amongst the sketches of the Missa Solemnis an unknown hymn by Beethoven.  It is an arrangement of the Gregorian Chant ‘Pange lingua’. Professor Cooper was so kind to share this link with us : Pange …

    Dr. Barry Cooper, University of Manchester

  • So, What’s New?

    Yes, we’ve been quiet for a very, very long time. In addition, the old website from 1999 was showing its age, and it was time to put a new face on it. With the 2013 relaunch of The Unheard Beethoven, we’re not just upgrading our interface and making the site …

    Beethoven's sketches for opus 69 Cello Sonata

  • Was ist das Gardiverzeichnis?

    It did not take long after we embarked on The Unheard Beethoven project to recognize that, as wide-spanning as the Biamonti catalog was, there were plenty of Beethoven compositions, finished and unfinished, that lacked any sort of catalog identifier. Since we had dealt with the Hess Catalog, or Hessverzeichnis, extensively, …

    Painting1819

Welcome to The Unheard Beethoven!

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, composer to ever live. Most people are familiar with a few of his works, if nothing more than the beginning of the Fifth Symphony, the Finale of the Ninth Symphony and the ‘Moonlight Sonata’.

Beethoven of course wrote a great deal more than those well-known works; one catalog of his compositions runs to 849 separate items. While several hundred of these works have been recorded on one medium or another, there still remain literally hundreds of other works which have never been recorded at all, or which have never been published in widely available editions or in some cases, never published at all! There are thus hundreds of Beethoven works which, until now, have been available only to scholars and specialists.

This website endeavors to make all of Beethoven’s unrecorded music readily accessible to the public. Now YOU may judge for yourself as to whether these pieces deserve a wider hearing and the ability to join the repertoire. These never-before-heard works are now available to anyone with a computer, a modem and a soundcard, in the form of MIDI files, and now, mp3s. Our rule of thumb has been that if a work has been recorded and is readily available, we will not produce a MIDI file, concentrating instead on the works which are not otherwise available. At present, over sixteen hours of Beethoven’s music is available on this website and in no other listenable format.

Enough Talk! Take Me to the Music!

What’s New After All These Years?


Or, if you don’t know where to start, just play a random unheard Beethoven work:

For a different random work, please refresh this page.

Longtime followers of this site will find that it’s now much different—we’ve entered the 21st century and you can anticipate more frequent updates and new works being brought to you. In addition, we will slowly be converting the MIDI files into mp3s, with the goal of eventually getting the entire site in mp3 format (though the MIDIs will remain available for those still suffering with bandwidth constraints). For files that are in mp3 format, we and the Surgeon General strongly advise accessing those versions unless you have a superior soundcard and specialized MIDI software.

 

Another new feature that we hope you will enjoy is The Unheard Blog, where Willem and Mark will hold forth on music, Beethoven, research and whatever else may intrigue them. Come register and join the conversation! We look forward to hearing from you. We also welcome your musical and artistic contributions.