Franz Berwalds septett - fakta och frågor kring verkets tillkomst

Abstract

In 1818 Franz Berwald gave the first performance of a septet which was again performed at a concert in 1819 but then disappeared from public view. In 1828 the first performance was given of another septet which was then regarded as “new”. However, since until recently only one septet was known as a preserved composition the question of the relationship between the two works could not be answered and since the first page of that hand-written manuscript had disappeared it was by no means certain that the preserved work represented the 1828 composition. However, two finds from the early 1980’s have altered this situation. A group of three copies were found to contain a diverging version of the septet-most noticeable in the final movement; the first page of the hand-written manuscript has been recovered and since it carries the date 1828 and since certain pasted-over alterations show that this newly discovered version of the work is older than the hand-written version, the mutual chronology of the two versions has been established. It is possible, but not provable, that the older version represents the 1818 composition; otherwise the existence of three different versions must be assumed (whereby the 181 8 septet might also have been a completely independent composition) but no documents support an assumption of this kind. The newly-found copies are of a relatively late date (ca 1850 or later) and the source upon which they are based is not known, nor why an older version was concerved long after the creation of the definitive version.