Beethoven, van Ludwig - Twelve Variations on "Ein Madchen oder Weibchen" from Mozart's The Magic Flute, Opus 66 - Cello and Piano - Edited by Morganstern - International Music Co.

I fell in love with this set of variations on “Ein Madchen oder Weibchen” when I heard a recording of it played by Enabyek Feuermann and Franz Rupp when I was a teenager. I played it as the final piece in the cycle of the complete Beethoven works for cello and piano that I gave at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1987.

Two hundred years earlier, in 1787, when Ludwig van Beethoven was sixteen, he visited Vienna. He might have met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and might have even taken a few lessons, but we don’t know for sure. We do know that due to family responsibilities Beethoven had to leave Vienna after six weeks or so. We also know that Beethoven wasn’t able to actually move to Vienna until November of 1792, and by that tune Mozart had died. Die Zauberflöte, which began its run at Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Weiden in 1791, was still playing, and Beethoven was able to attend a performance. Mozart never had the opportunity to see a performance of Die Zauberflote.

Encouraged by the support of noblemen in his native Bonn, Beethoven felt himself to be Mozart’s successor. He was already a complete master in the art of writing variations, and he knew that Mozart’s popular and recognizable material would help him to gain access to the higher musical circles in Vienna, so in 1795 or 1796 he set to work on “Ein Madchen oder Weibchen,” the first of two sets of variations on material from Die Zauberflöte. It isn’t clear if Beethoven had a particular cellist in mind to play these variations, but it is possible that Papageno’s baritone voice suggested the cello to Beethoven.

The autograph of this set of variations has been lost, so the first edition, published by Traeg in 1798, is the source for every subsequent edition.

-Daniel Morganstern, December 2020

This edition contains the solo part and the accompanying piano part. The cello part and the piano part were edited by Daniel Morganstern.