Beethoven expert, RIP
RIPWe have been notified of the death of Theodore Albrecht, editor and translator of Beethoven’s notebooks and professor at Kent State University.
He was 79.
Ted was very helpful at a late stage with my Why Beethoven queries, casting fresh light and supplying previously unpublished detail about the first performance of the ninth symphony.
In addition (among many others), he published the three-volume “Letters to Beethoven” and was completing his monumental translation of the composer’s “Conversation Books” with his characteristically expert commentary, annotations, and wit. (I dimly recall his sly suggestion that the thrice repeated “Kraft” [strength] at the climax of the Choral Fantasy acknowledged the surname of father (Anton) and son (Nikolaus) cello players, and to the latter’s child – the drawn-out third “Kraft” referring to its birth.) One of the truly great Beethovenians; a great scholar and a great friend dearly missed.
Sheesh, almost a quarter of a year has gone by.
https://www.facebook.com/untmusiclibrary/posts/theodore-albrecht-1945-2025the-music-library-is-sad-to-report-the-death-of-disti/1487268559085314/
The American Beethoven Society’s Beethoven Newsletter is currently publishing a two-part article by Ted, “Narrowing the Window:
Ferdinand Ries’s
Arrival in Vienna and
Its Ripple Effect in
Beethoven’s Eroica
Sketchbook” along with a tribute to Ted. Join at http://americanbeethovensociety.org
Resale profits are strong
RIP indeed. His 2024 book “Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Rehearsing and Performing its 1824 Premiere” is superb.