The original manuscript is lost. A copy from O. Jahn’s estate, with the German text, is preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The publication by W. Hess, mentioned above, was based on this copy. The original Italian text is cited in the Thayer catalogue, p. 194.

Sketches communicated by Nottebohm. A small page, apparently composed for the name day of Dr Giovanni Malfatti, on the occasion of a celebration organised by Dr Andrea Bertolini, both well-known friends of Beethoven. The Italian verses, by Abate Clemente Bondi, are somewhat disjointed, at least as reported in the Thayer catalogue.

The text: “Un lieto brindisi Tutti a Giovanni Cantiam cosi, così. Viva lunghi anni Sempre felici Utile al mondo Caro agli amici, Nuovo Esculapio Dei nostri dì. Viva Giovanni, Viva ed al solito Febbri e smania Segua a sanar Sospenda i vanni E sì bei giorni Tardi a troncar”.

 [By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]

Official title: WoO 103 Cantata campestre Kantate (B-dur) nach einem Text von Clemente Bondi für Sopran, zwei Tenöre, Bass und Klavier Widmung: — NGAXII/1 Nr. 87 AGA-SBG V/19 (2. Auflage: 20; Hess 127)

Composition and publication: A short cantata composed in June 1814 in Vienna. The first edition appeared posthumously in 1945, initially with a German text in the Jahrbuch der Literarischen Vereinigung Winterthur, and later in 1975 with the original Italian text in the Beethoven-Jahrbuch. Beethoven wrote the cantata for the celebration of the name day of Dr Johannes Malfatti (1775–1859) on 24 June 1814, who was hosted by his medical assistant Dr Joseph Bertolini. The work was probably composed shortly before a concert, as the sketches in the pocket notebook known as “Dessauer” follow the annotations for the recitative “Abscheulicher” and the revised opening of Leonore’s aria “Komm, Hoffnung” from Fidelio op. 72, which was written only after the premiere of Fidelio on 26 May 1814. Malfatti had begun treating Beethoven in 1809, though they may actually have known each other even earlier. In April 1817, one of Beethoven’s customary quarrels erupted: the composer accused him of incompetence, lack of discernment, and dishonesty (BGA 1132).

In January 1827, Beethoven, already terminally ill, again sought Malfatti’s advice and called him to join the council of doctors treating him. The cantata was first published in 1945 by Willy Hess, who, in the absence of an autograph score, relied on a later copy from Otto Jahn’s estate and adopted the German text “Johannisfeier begeh’n wir heute”. Although Beethoven’s sketches contain the Italian text by Clemente Bondi, Hess considered it „kaum möglich“ and „im Sinne Beethovens zu unterlegen“ in the available, seemingly “halting” Italian version.

Text: Clemente Bondi (1742–1821), Jesuit, librarian at the Viennese court from 1797, occasional poet and translator of ancient writings. The original Italian text survives only in Beethoven’s sketches for WoO 103. Even the first (erroneous) reprint of the text in Thayer/1865, p. 194, as an addendum to No. 185, appears to be based on this source. Copies of the work now known present two different German texts.

First performance: 24 June 1814 at Malfatti’s summer house in Weinhaus, then a suburb of Vienna, in the presence of Beethoven.

The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org