Biamonti 347 – Piano passage for “Omnibus (sic!) tonos
Biamonti 347 – Piano passage for “Omnibus (sic!) tonos”. It is found in the Wielhorsky sketchbook, page 86, lines 1–7. Fishman Nathaniel, page 95; Nohl, Beethoven Leben und Werken
News from the Beethoven Musical Research Centre (November 2025).
It is located in Moscow, in the Wielhorski Sketchbook, named after one of its owners. In fact, this is not a pianistic passage, as Biamonti suggests, but rather a series of exercises based on C-arpeggios (major, minor, and on the minor subdominant), to be played with the left hand and in all keys (“omnibus tonos”). Fishman transcribes the ending of the fourth arpeggio with the notes “G – E-flat – C”, but, as can be seen from the photograph above, Beethoven writes “G – E-flat – B – C”. After these five exercises we find another one on the leading note of G (altered subdominant = diminished arpeggio on the leading note of the dominant of C major), to be played with both hands in contrary motion.
After these arpeggios there are two studies on chord progressions which, however, I would not include in this group, since they cannot be performed “omnibus tonos”. The first consists of a four-part chordal texture in A minor with triple trills; in this chorale Beethoven forgot to indicate that the left hand, too, is to be played in the treble clef. Other omissions occur in the third bar (the trill on A-sharp in the right hand is missing) and in the fourth bar (the sharp on the F in the left hand). 
The second is a chordal progression.
Count Mikhail Vielgorsky (Michał Wielhorski, Михаил Юрьевич Виельгорский) (1788–1856) was a Russian officer and composer of Polish origin. He composed romances, symphonies, an opera, and was an amateur singer, violinist, and patron of the arts. He is considered a very influential figure in musical arts in Russia during the 19th century and held musical salons, eventually introducing the use of the string quartet in Russia. Together with his brother Matvey Vielgorsky, they were considered the “brothers of harmony” for their selfless and devoted patronage of musical art.
Vielgorsky was a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and admirer of his music; the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Russia took place at Vielgorsky’s home in Saint Petersburg in 1836. That same year, Mikhail Glinka rehearsed parts of his new opera “Жизнь за царя” (Zhizn za tsarya), also at Vielgorsky’s home, accompanied by Prince Yusupov’s orchestra. In the 1830s and 1840s, as Richard Stites notes, Vielgorsky’s salon “hosted the most famous musical visitors of mid-century Russia: Liszt, Berlioz, the Schumanns, and Pauline Viardo”… Due to the presence of Gogol, Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Lermontov, Odoevsky, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, and Bryullov, a contemporary nicknamed Vielgorsky’s house “a lively, multifaceted, and original academy of the arts.” Berlioz called it “a small ministry of fine arts.”
Vielgorsky presided over his salons with notable informality, wearing simple clothes and entertaining guests from various social classes with ease.
Vielgorsky was the son of Jerzy Wielhorski, son of Maciej Wielhorski (Matvey Valigorsky, 1794–1866), an amateur cellist who founded the Society of Music Lovers with Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin (also a friend of Beethoven) in 1828.
Mikhail Vielgorsky’s special passion was music, and he was known to be an excellent performer and composer. And although he was an amateur, according to Schumann’s opinion he was “a brilliant amateur.” Robert also said that Vielgorsky was “the most ingenious amateur I have ever known.” Already during childhood, he showed exceptional musical abilities: he played the violin well and tried to compose. Vielgorsky received versatile musical training and studied music theory and harmony with the Spanish composer V. Martin y Soler, as well as composition with the German conductor and pianist Wilhelm Taubert. In 1804, when the whole family lived in Riga, Vielgorsky took part in the family’s musical production: the first violin part was played by his father, the viola – by himself, and the cello part – by his brother Matvey, another exceptional musician. Not limiting himself to the knowledge acquired, Vielgorsky continued his composition studies in Paris with Luigi Cherubini, a famous Italian composer and music theorist. Alongside his work as a composer, Vielgorsky was an actual privy councillor to Catherine II, or Catherine the Great.
Mikhail Vielgorsky (or Michał Wielhorski, Михаил Юрьевич Виельгорский) (1788-1856)