Rondo in F Major

After a fragment from Beethoven's lost Oboe Concerto in F Major (Hess. 12)

In November of 1793, Joseph Haydn wrote a letter to Maximilian Franz, Elector of Cologne, about the progress in composition of his pupil Ludwig van Beethoven. At that time Beethoven was still in the service of the Elector. All the pieces mentioned by Haydn in the letter are presently lost. Among them was the Oboe Concerto in F, Hess 12. The only known copy of the score vanished from a Vienna publishing house in the 1840s. Its existence was confirmed only in 1935 when an exchange of letters was found between Haydn and Beethoven’s sponsor.  However, Beethoven's sketch for the slow movement of this concerto has survived. It is found in the so-called "Kafka" sketchbook in the British Library. The sketch has only the main melody, but it does give more or less the whole movement from start till finish. In 1981, oboist Charles Lehrer made an excellent reconstruction of the movement based on this sketch for oboe and piano. After years of further research, there appeared to be enough leads in countless sketchbooks to also reconstruct the first movement, and this was done by the Dutch musicologist Cees Nieuwenhuizen. He also made improvements to the second movement.

As for the third movement, only one single fragment of the opening figure exists, and it is regretfully not enough to turn into a whole movement. But that doesn't mean we can't try. It is therefore why I have decided to attempt a complete blossoming and cheerful rondo based on that one sketch. PLEASE NOTE: this is NOT a defenitive reconstruction, this is only a experiement on my part to turn a tiny sketch into a complete movement. And with that said, this might just be the very first time we can hear a very rough impression of the complete concerto Beethoven had in mind, and that is exciting. 

Year: 2023

Duration: ca 5 min.

Instrumentation: solo ob + 2 Ob. 2 Bsn. 2 Hn. Str.