MUSIC

Sir Yehudi Menuhin has joined the fracas surrounding a re-created version of Beethoven’s lost 10th symphony, to be premiered in London tonight. Musical researcher Barry Cooper of Aberdeen University in Scotland spent five years re-creating the symphony’s first movement from original fragments of the composer’s manuscript and sketches discovered in Berlin. Cooper’s 500-bar, 15-minute piece is due to performed for the first time in public by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Wyn Morris at London’s Royal Festival Hall, 161 years after Beethoven’s death. In an article written for the Manchester Guardian, Sir Yehudi claimed that the piece is valuable as written, “hearing the thoughts of Beethoven,” thus disputing many another musical scholar who have dismissed the piece. Jazz composer John Dankworth said: “Calling this Beethoven’s 10th was a bad idea. It should be named ‘Excerpts and Snippets.’ ” Says conductor Morris: “It’s so much more convincing to hear the tunes and harmonies that Beethoven left behind played by a first-class orchestra than seeing a few sketches on a page.”