Welcome to the Unheard Beethoven!Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, composer to ever live. Most people are familiar with a few of his works, if nothing more than the beginning of the Fifth Symphony, the Finale of the Ninth Symphony and the "Moonlight" Sonata.
This website endeavors to make all of Beethoven's unrecorded music readily accessible to the public. Now YOU may judge for yourself as to whether these pieces deserve a wider hearing and the ability to join the repertoire. These never-before-heard works are now available to anyone with a computer, a modem and a soundcard, in the form of MIDI files. Our rule of thumb has been that if a work has been recorded and is readily available, we will not produce a MIDI file, concentrating instead on the works which are not otherwise available. At present, over twelve hours of Beethoven's music is available on this website and in no other listenable format.
Newest Works (1/10/08) NEW! Click here for Free Beethoven Cards with Unheard Beethoven music! Choose your Beethoven Card, write your greeting, select your Unheard Beethoven music and ... SEND !
Click here to help us continue bringing more Unheard Beethoven compositions to the Internet
The Beethoven Song Companion
We are pleased to announce the publication of Paul Reid's The
Beethoven Song Companion by Manchester University Press in
October, 2007. This book fills a long-standing vacuum in the
Beethoven literature as it examines in detail the sources and history
of each of Beethoven's songs. Reid also includes numerous songs that
Beethoven did not complete but for which he left substantial
sketches. Willem and Mark were gratified to be of assistance to Mr
Reid in tracking down elusive compositions and manuscripts that were
not readily accessible. The book can be ordered at Amazon here.
Unheard Beethoven Live!The performance of the Unheard Beethoven Macbeth Overture by the National Symphony Orchestra on Sept. 20-22, 2001, was a tremendous success. Find out more about the performance and see some exclusive pictures.CD NewsOne of our goals in establishing the Unheard Beethoven was to encourage musicians to discover these compositions and record them. So far, that goal is proceeding quite well. Not one but two recordings of the Piano Sonata Biamonti 213 have recently been released as a result of this site publicizing their existence.The Master's original sketch, as he left it, is performed by UK pianist John Kersey on Romantic Discoveries Recordings CD 19. This CD also includes an amazing 35 additional Unheard pieces, almost all of which have never before been recorded. It's a treasure trove for those fascinated by the minutiae of Beethoven's catalogues. The recording of our own Willem's completion of the sonata is performed by Steven Beck on Monument Records, accompanied by other piano fantasias by Beethoven. A CD of string quartet discoveries, produced in conjunction with The Unheard Beethoven, will also be forthcoming shortly from Monument Records.We are also pleased to announce that the Macbeth Overture, realized and orchestrated by our own Willem, is now available on CD, performed by the Sassari Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Roberto Diem Tigani. This disc is volume 3 in the series of Beethoven Rarities released by Inedita, an Italian company. You can order directly from Inedita, and also hear RealAudio and mp3 excerpts of Macbeth and other works on the disc on their website. Inedita has also recently released the premiere recording of the Hess 15 Piano Concerto, as realized by Dr. Nicholas Cook, on volume IV of this same series, so lovers of the Unheard Beethoven will want to get both volumes. Monument Records distributes Inedita in the USA, and they currently have volume III available and should have volume IV soon. 
About the Project | Search the Works | "Seldom Heard" Beethoven | Our Links | Contributions
For more information, please e-mail gardibolt@unheardbeethoven.org or xickx@unheardbeethoven.org |
Beethoven of course wrote a great deal more than those well-known works; one
catalog of his compositions runs to 849 separate items. While several
hundred of these works have been recorded on one medium or another, there
still remain literally hundreds of other works which have never been
recorded at all, or which have never been published in widely available
editions or in some cases, never published at all! There are thus hundreds
of Beethoven works which, until now, have been available only to scholars
and specialists.
