Beethoven: 12 Variations on 'Menuet a la Vigano', WoO 68

Introduction

Haibel's opera Le nozze disturbate featured the "Menuet à la Viganò", whose theme attracted Beethoven, not just for its melodic appeal but for its potential yield in a set of variations. He wrote many such works for piano around this time and on up into the early 1800s. In fact, in 1795 he wrote at least two other sets of variations based on themes in popular operas of the day: Nine Variations for Piano, in A major, on Paisiello's "Quant è Più Bello", WoO. 69, and Six Variations, in G major, on the duet "Nel cor piu non mi sento" from La molinara, WoO. 70. The Eight Variations for piano, in C major, on Grétry's "Une fièvre brulante", WoO. 72, may also have come from 1795.

This set of variations on Haibel's "Menuet à la Viganò" is based on a perky theme of some appeal, though parts of it reiterate in a way that gives its melodic character a certain predictability, if not triteness. But Beethoven takes it and immediately adds some depth-albeit not profundity-in the first several variations by increasing the tempo and drawing on the theme's potential for color. The third variation is lively and quite humorous, the fourth serious and dark. The next is playful, exploiting the effect of contrast to the fullest.

The seventh is march-like and serious, similar in mood to the fourth and one of the longer variations here. The next several are lively and brilliant, the ninth being a particularly outstanding entry.

When musicologists write about this set of variations, they usually talk about the last two, and especially the twelfth. Both are splendid examples of canonic writing, and the last variation is one of Beethoven's finest and most colorful in any of his early works in the genre, not least because of its stunning display of fireworks.

This composition was first published in Vienna in 1796. Among his early efforts in the piano variation genre, it is one of the composer's longest, typically lasting around fifteen minutes.

Parts/Movements

1. Thema: Allegretto -
2. Variation 1 -
3. Variation 2 -
4. Variation 3 -
5. Variation 4 -
6. Variation 5 -
7. Variation 6 -
8. Variation 7 -
9. Variation 8 -
10. Variation 9 -
11. Variation 10 -
12. Variation 11 -
13. Variation 12: Allegro - Adagio