WoO 100: Lob auf den Dicken («Хвала толстяку»), музыкальная шутка для трех солистов и хора

Время создания: 1801 г.
Посвящено: Ignaz Schuppanzigh

(beethoven-haus-bonn.de)

Текст:

Schuppanzigh ist ein Lump.
Wer kennt ihn nicht,
den dicken Sauermagen,
den aufgeblasnen Eselskopf?
O Lump Schuppanzigh,
o Esel Schuppanzigh,
wir stimmen alle ein,
du bist der größte Esel,
o Esel, hi hi ha.

(Schuppanzigh is a rascal
Who knows him not,
the fat sour-belly
the conceited donkey-head?
Oh rascal Schuppanzigh
Oh donkey Schuppanzigh
We all agree
that you are the biggest donkey
Oh donkey, ha ha ha)

Austrian violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh was a member of the Vienna court orchestra and musical director of the Kärtnertortheater. In the mid 1790s he became director of a string quartet founded by Prince Lichnowsky. Around that time he met Ludwig van Beethoven whom Schuppanzigh very well might have given violin lessons. Ten years later Schuppanzigh became the first violinist of the string quartet founded by Earl Rasumowsky and performed Beethoven's string quartets op. 59 - the so-called Rasumowsky Quartets.

After the quartet was dissolved in 1816, Schuppanzigh moved to St. Petersburg but returned to Vienna in 1823. Here, he held the first public quartet evenings to perform chamber music for a broad audience. Thereby, he significantly contributed to the development of civil music culture in the 19th century.

The intensive and friendly relationship between Schuppanzigh and Beethoven continued throughout these years. Schuppanzigh directed the first performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and several of his later string quartets. The composer often made jokes about the heavyset violinist and called him "Mylord Falstaff". In 1801 he wrote the joking choir piece "Lob auf den Dicken" (Praising the fat one), WoO 100, for Schuppanzigh. When the violinist returned from St. Petersburg in 1823, Beethoven welcomed him with the canon "Falstafferl, laß dich sehen" (Little Falstaff, welcome back), WoO 184.(S.B.)

(beethoven-haus-bonn.de)