Beethoven, Ludwig van

FIRST EDITION, CORRECTED ISSUE, OF BEETHOVEN'S THIRD SYMPHONY (THE "EROICA"), complete parts for 2 violins, violas, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and basso, 4to (c.34 x 25cms), engraved throughout, plate number 512, price erased on title, composer's preface (see below), original stitching, good margins, watermarks "P A M", "V" and a shield, ownership inscription to title ("Chr. Graham" or "Chr. Grabaw")

Ludwig van Beethoven. Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, edited by K. Dorfmüller, N. Gertsch & J. Ronge, (2014), I. p.302; Fuld, p.554; Hoboken 261 (and plate 9)

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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THE "EROICA" SYMPHONY WAS ORIGNALLY PUBLISHED SOLELY IN THE PRESENT FORMAT: AS A SET OF ORCHESTRAL PLAYING PARTS.  Printed full scores came out later.  The authorized edition was published in 1822, although the London firm of Cianchettini & Sperati made up their own score from these Viennese playing parts in 1809.  The autograph manuscript of the "Eroica" is lost, although the original performing materials in scribal hands, some annotated by Beethoven, exist in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. 

RARE: no copy in America and only one complete in Britain.  The new thematic catalogue (2014) identifies seven copies of the first issue, nine of the second and four that cannot be clearly defined.  First editions of Beethoven's early symphonies are all rare and are usually found incomplete.  They invariably include historically-important mistakes.  On this issue corrections have been made on the plates to the end of the exposition of the first movement (bars 151-152), which were originally repeated.

The "Eroica" is one of Beethoven's greatest and most epoch-making works: it changed the nature of the symphony forever.  The first movement alone is the length of most entire symphonies by Haydn and Mozart.  Hence Beethoven's preface to this edition, advising placing the work near the beginning of a concert rather than near the end.

...Questa Sinfonia essendo scritta apposta più lunga delle solite, si deve eseguire più vicino al principio ch' al fine di un Academia e poco doppo un Overtura un' Aria ed un Concerto; accioche, sentita troppo tardi, non perda per l'auditore già faticato dalle precedenti produzioni, il suo proprio proposto effetto...

Beethoven originally intended to dedicate the work to Napoleon, whose republican ideals he espoused--he even titled the work "Bonaparte" at one stage.  Ries describes how the composer mutilated his autograph title-page bearing the dedication, but an echo of it can be found in the present title to the work, which Beethoven describes as having been "composed to celebrate the memory of a great Man".