Hyperion Records

Beethoven’s Symphony No 7 was completed in 1812 and dedicated to Landgrave Moritz von Fries. This fragment – all that he managed of his only attempt at a solo piano transcription of one of his own symphonies – was undertaken by early 1815, probably in response to Diabelli’s wish to publish such an arrangement, and was published in facsimile under the present title by Willy Hess in his supplement to the Breitkopf edition of Beethoven’s complete works. It is included here for several reasons: its intrinsic interest; because it is not otherwise recorded; as a testament to Beethoven’s approval of such arrangements in general; and because the juxtaposition of Beethoven’s fragment with Liszt’s first transcription of the same material also convinces the listener of Liszt’s particular genius in the field as well as his superior fidelity to Beethoven in the text itself. Beethoven’s fascinating attempt breaks off towards the end of the Poco sostenuto. (Diabelli took over the task himself and made the first published solo piano transcription of the whole symphony, which was published in England in 1816 – as Beethoven’s Opus 98! Czerny also made an approved piano transcription, but in a version for four hands.)

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1997