# Beethoven Poll (Stage Works/Oratorios)



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Just curious which of these ranks highest as favorites on TC. It's multiple choice so you don't have to anguish over selecting between two favorites. I maybe could have included some other works, but these are the longer ones, the main ones, so it seems to me. You can always select other and mention other stage works (or incidental music) you like besides these, such as King Stephen (incidental music), Op.117, or Leonore Prohaska (incidental music), WoO96.

EDIT: maybe incidental music is the more proper term for some of these than stage works, but I mean both.


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## Adam Weber (Apr 9, 2015)

I love Beethoven's Egmont and Goethe did too. Can't lose with a recommendation like that.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I voted Christ and Egmont, in no particular order .:tiphat:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Bumping this poll for the benefit of all the new members since 2016.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I'd rather hear his cantata *Die glorrieche Augenblick* (the glorious moment) than anything listed here. He wrote it as a 19-year-old as part of the 1814 Congress of Vienna. It was premiered Nov. 20 that year in a concert with then-new Wellington's Victory and the Symphony No. 7.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

larold said:


> I'd rather hear his cantata *Die glorrieche Augenblick* (the glorious moment) than anything listed here. He wrote it as a 19-year-old as part of the 1814 Congress of Vienna. It was premiered Nov. 20 that year in a concert with then-new Wellington's Victory and the Symphony No. 7.


In 1814 Beethoven was in his 40s...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

KenOC said:


> In 1814 Beethoven was in his 40s...


Hey Ken. As long as you visit the thread, how about casting your vote?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Hey Ken. As long as you visit the thread, how about casting your vote?


Well, I'm not fond of the choral portions of any of the listed works. I'll vote instead for Beethoven's *Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II*, WoO 87, written in 1790 when Beethoven was nineteen. It's really pretty good! However it lay unperformed for almost a hundred years.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Well, I'm not fond of the choral portions of any of the listed works. I'll vote instead for Beethoven's *Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II*, WoO 87, written in 1790 when Beethoven was nineteen. It's really pretty good! However it lay unperformed for almost a hundred years.


Maybe a new poll is in order with stage works and cantatas.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Maybe a new poll is in order with stage works and cantatas.


Sorry if I confused genres! BTW with respect to incidental music, Beethoven's ditties for the 1815 production of _Leonore Prohaska_ include his only music for the glass harmonica. Starts at the four-minute mark *here*.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Sorry if I confused genres! BTW with respect to incidental music, Beethoven's ditties for the 1815 production of _Leonore Prohaska_ include his only music for the glass harmonica. Starts at the four-minute mark *here*.


Glass harmonica seems like otherworldly music. No problem on confused genres. We could to a separate poll on all his cantatas, but I am not familiar enough to assemble the poll or vote.


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## Caroline (Oct 27, 2018)

KenOC said:


> Well, I'm not fond of the choral portions of any of the listed works. I'll vote instead for Beethoven's *Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II*, WoO 87, written in 1790 when Beethoven was nineteen. It's really pretty good! However it lay unperformed for almost a hundred years.


I wonder if this was not published as a result of his association with Haydn, who disapproved of other early works. Believe there were a set of piano works - one of which Haydn discouraged him from publishing...?


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

You forgot to include none of the above! Beethoven, together with Tchaikovsky, is my favorite composer. When I want to listen to his works, I don't turn to any of the above, but instead listen to his symphonies, concertos, piano sonatas and string quartets, in descending order. I have almost zero interest in the compositions listed in the poll, their overtures excepted.


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## Caroline (Oct 27, 2018)

Nice to see these overlooked works get noted. On works for the stage, a few others to sample are:

Carl Meisl: Musik zu "Die Weihe des Hauses" (Carl Meisl) Occasional Play, and the many marches and dances he wrote.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I don't know how I didn't vote for Christ on the Mount of Olives in my own poll. It would be my top choice now. Oh well.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

KenOC said:


> I'll vote instead for Beethoven's *Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II*, WoO 87, written in 1790 when Beethoven was nineteen. It's really pretty good! However it lay unperformed for almost a hundred years.


I'm curious why you keep saying this cantata is really good. In fact, I don't think Beethoven produced something listenable in vocal writing until he finished his studies with Salieri:




"Da- kam- Jo- seph-"


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