Free Returns Chamber Music

In his first decade in Vienna, Beethoven seems to have been preoccupied with music for wind instruments. The best-known example is his Quintet in E flat major, Op. 16, which he arranged at the same time for piano quartet. He also wrote music for dances and settings of folk songs, and reflected the public’s interest in automata by writing for musical clock. The Napoleonic wars were mirrored in Beethoven’s music of the period, especially in his military compositions such as a series of Marches and the Equali, scored for trombones, which were later played at his funeral. The Naxos Beethoven Complete Edition 90-album boxed set (8.500250) features a host of fragments, sketches, drafts, arrangements, transcriptions and reconstructions. Following Sergio Gallo’s Piano Pieces and Fragments (8.574131) and the Fine Arts Quartet’s Fugues and Rarities for String Quartet (8.574051) albums, this new release includes many lesser-known works that will attract connoisseurs and completists, and casual listeners as well.