‘Lost’ Beethoven adagio to premiere

A long-lost adagio by Beethoven will be performed for the first time in the Netherlands next week. The Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra will perform the eight-minute piece on Tuesday, conductor Conrad van Alphen said Friday.

Beethoven likely wrote the draft in Vienna in the 1790s, when he was in his 20s. It was found among bundles of his sketches and drafts in the British Library and published in 1970.

It matches “very much exactly the mood of Beethoven’s third concerto,” Van Alphen said. “It’s calm but deeply emotional.” Musicologist Cees Nieuwenhuizen orchestrated the movement using the outline, attempting to adhere to Beethoven’s early style.

The orchestra premiered a similarly reconstructed Beethoven concerto for oboe last year.

From Associated Press