Beethoven - The Young Prometheus

Several weeks ago, I came across this fascinating lp in a second hand shop in West Dover, VT. The album features orchestrations by musicologist Alexander Brott of contrapunctal and fugal exercises done by Beethoven early on in his career. These delightful "etudes" pay homage to the past masters and are examples of the "rote" that students go through as they begin to grasp the dsicipline of composition.

Brott's orchestration are for traditional "Beethoven" size orchestra and they are quite faithful to the master's style of instrumental orchestration. I would advise all that this is not revolutionary music but evolutionary, a step on the way towards Beethoven discovering his own, unique voice. In other words, the "text" here contains no forgotten masterpieces. A curiosity you could say but listening is well worth while since it will give you additional appreciation of Beethoven's genius and, the hard work that he put into his craft.

These recordings date from the early 70's, I believe, and were made by the CBC "Festival" Orchestra. I'm not sure if Alexander Brott is the brother of conductor Boris Brott. Both centered their careers in our neighbor to the north.

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