Hess 13 – Cantabile Romance (unfinished) in E minor, for harpsichord, flute and bassoon, with accompaniment of 2 oboes and string orchestra, 1792-1793, published in Wiesbaden, Breitkopf and Hartel, by W. Hess, with its completion, in 1952; and according to the unfinished original in the third issue of the Supplemente zur GA., 1960. B. 315 – H. 13 – KH. (WoO): hint, p. 479 at the bottom – Sch. p. 219/45.

Published in Wiesbaden, Breitkopf and Hartel, by W. Hess, with its completion, in 1952; and according to the unfinished original in the third booklet of the Supplemente zur GA., 1960. B. 315 – H. 13 – KH. (WoO): hint, p. 479 at the bottom – Sch. p. 219/45. The original manuscript is now preserved in London in the British Museum (Kafka Schizzenbuch). The first to talk about it, briefly, were Nottebohm and, several years later, Shedlock. In 1946 Hess was able to get to know the original and give more information, later editing the editions. It is a small piece, consisting of a first part (52 bars in E minor, with a complementary theme in G major) and the cue (4 bars) of a middle part in major which was to be followed, according to the indications of the score, by an abbreviated reprise of the first part. This incompleteness prevents us from getting an exact idea: we cannot even know if it is a fragment of a major work or a composition. The date of 1795, attributed by Nottebohm, is no longer generally accepted today by scholars, who lean towards an earlier period: 1792 – 1793, not even excluding that the Romance may have been written again in Bonn, for the members of that Westerholt family to whom Beethoven had already dedicated the Trio for harpsichord, flute and bassoon in G major WoO 37. Of this, which could have been a real concert, only a fragment has come down to us. The type of ensemble is certainly unusual and recalls the type of orchestra of Baron Friedrich Ludolf Anton von Westerholt-Gysenberg. It is a page of suggestive emotionality that highlights that melodic vein in Beethoven that was not predominant, but which subsequently bore fruit of the highest level.

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