Quintett für zwei Violinen, zwei Violen und Violoncello (Es-Dur) op. 4

Composition
1795

Beethoven sketched the quintet in 1795, as can be seen from the paper of the remaining sources, handing over the engraver's model to the publisher Artaria before he embarked on his concert tour to Prague and Berlin in January 1796. In so doing he turned to the Octet for Wind Instruments op. 103, which he had written as dinner music for the Archbishop in Bonn in 1792. Scholars have had lengthy discussions about the correct terminology for op. 4: whether the quintet is another version or rather an arrangement of the original work. It is true that Beethoven used the original material, but he made such major changes to the structure and instrumentation that it is really a new composition on the basis of older parts.
Ferdinand Ries tells an anecdote about the origin of the quintet. At one of the regular Friday morning concerts at Prince Lichnowsky's, Count Appony had commissioned Beethoven to compose a string quartet "which he had not done up to then". Beethoven went to work "twice, on the first attempt he wrote a great violin trio (op. 3) and on the second, a violin quintet (op. 4)." (J.R.)

Music manuscripts
	Skizzen, HCB Mh 63

First editions
	Originalausgabe, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627
	Originalausgabe, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627; Teilscan
	Erstausgabe, op. 4, Partitur, André, 5281
	Erstausgabe, op. 63, Bearbeitung von op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 1818
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Partitur, André, 5281; Teilscan
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627; Teilscan
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627; Teilscan
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627; Teilscan
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Stimmen, Artaria, 627; Teilscan
	Titelauflage, op. 4, Stimmen, Mollo, 627; Teilscan

Scores

Written documents
	Eigentumsbestätigung für Artaria & Comp. über alle bis 1820 im Verlag erschienenen Werke, Wien, 4. April 1820

Literatur

	Berlin: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv
	Tschechien, Nelahozeves: Roudnicka Lobkowiczka sbirka, zamek
	Ungarn, Budapest: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár

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E-Mail: bibliothek@beethoven-haus-bonn.de