Like Mozart, Haydn, and many others of the 18th and 19th centuries, Beethoven wrote a fair amount of "background" music to accompany plays, dramatic theatricals, public events, well, you name it. This kind of public commission was usually lucrative for a composer since the pay was pretty good and music from previous outings could be reworked and repackaged for a tidy sum. However, when evaluating the complete ouerve of a composer, this work is often dismissed, and coveniently forgotten, as being inconsequential.
This is too bad since the two works here, The music from King Stephen and The Ruins of Athens, contain some delightful, even inventive moments that provide an enjoyable and stimulating listen from time to time. I cannot think of anyone tackling King Stephen in recent memory but Ruins was programmed, and recorded by Beecham. Strangely, the great Sir Thomas had some sympathy for the score though in general, he was rather cold towards Beethoven. Go figure.
From a Vox Turnabout LP, dating from the late 60's, I think, the eminent scholar-conductor Hans Hubert Schonzeler leads sparkling performances of these scores. The orchestra is identified as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra though, I have my doubts if that then East German ensemble would have been placed at Schonzeler's disposal. Whatever the origination of the proceedings, Schonzeler does make a strong case for these works with rather crisp and well prepared readings. I believe that you will enjoy this fairly well recorded Vox effort. It is lesser Beethoven but the handprint is moset definitely there!
As a filler, from an Everest Counterpoint edition, I've included Beethoven's German Dances as realized by Rene Leibowitz and what is claimed to be the French National Orchestra. These "lollipops" were recorded c. 1956 or so, I would say. Like all of Leibowitz's work, enthusiasm and good taste abound. It really was too bad that a man of Leibowitz's stature had to wait until the tail end of his career in order to record with a top notch ensemble, that being the RPO. The bulk of Leibowitz's recordings originate from Paris and often the orchestral contributions are not up to the highest standards of the day. Still, these miniatures round out a program dedicated to the byways of Beethoven.
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