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Agency Report
Cologne – The Beethoven House in the western German city of Bonn has purchased an important original manuscript by composer Ludwig van Beethoven with the help of public and private donors.
The Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States on Tuesday said the document is a complete movement from Beethoven’s String Quartet No 13 in B flat major, opus 130.
The manuscript, written in 1825, consists of nine pages with 15 sides of musical composition.
It reveals notes and corrections made by the legendary composer, who died in 1827.
The Beethoven House is in the composer’s birthplace in Bonn and includes a museum, concert hall, research centre and archive.
President Daniel Hope said the document was the last known major Beethoven manuscript still in private hands.
A special exhibition on the new acquisition is planned from June to August 2025.
The manuscript has a chequered history. It was since the 1920s in the hands of the Jewish Petschek family, who were persecuted by the Nazis and left the Czech Republic in 1938, with their property being confiscated.
In 2022, restitution was made to the descendants, who agreed to sell the manuscript to the Beethoven House.
The caretaker of the collection, Julia Ronge, expressed her gratitude “that the Petschek descendants have decided to leave this treasure to a German institution despite their family history.”
Composer Jörg Widmann paid tribute to the String Quartet opus 130 and in particular the part covered by the acquired manuscript, which he described as “rhythmically highly complex, bulky and spiky.”
