SJSU To Share Beethoven's Love Score

SAN JOSE, CA -- You know as soon as you hear it – that energetic pulse of joy mixed with contrasting moody tones. Now you can see Beethoven’s original 7th Symphony score like never before, thanks to San Jose State University.

Through a concert and lecture slated this Saturday, the university will commemorate obtaining the score, which came with a handwritten inscription to the woman believed by scholars as Ludwig’s “immortal beloved.”

They were never married. But like so many other tortured artists, Beethoven’s love for philanthropist, art collector Antonie Brentano endured the test of time. The German composer, pianist was friends with the family. She died in 1869 at almost 90 years old, 46 years after he did.

SJSU’s Ira F. Brillant Center for Beethoven Studies paid a pretty penny for this rare artifact bought at an undisclosed sum from family members who found it by sifting through their late relative’s belongings.

“It was a lot,” curator Patricia Stroh told Patch of the negotiated amount. “It’s pretty amazing. This was in the private collection of a woman who died.”

Stroh knows the value of what the center has with the written work of a piece deemed as quintessential Beethoven. The world-renowned composer transitioned the society of music from the classical to romantic era in the early 1800s.

“This is one of the favorites of Beethoven’s symphonies – even more than the 5th and the 9th,” she said. “It’s so moving.”

With the help of the American Beethoven Society, the Beethoven Center at the state university launched a fundraising campaign to purchase the score from the private owners – who remain concealed. The university has maintained a note from the family that previously owned it.

“In the second decade of the 20th century, the score was acquitted by my great uncle, who was a collector with a great love for classical music. It passed down through generations, but its unassuming and worn boxed binding led to it sitting unnoticed on a shelf until we were going through my mother’s (belongings) after her death,” the child of the previous owner wrote.

The family took the score to scholars in Bonn, Germany, and they verified it as the writing of Beethoven.

Translated, the inscription reads: “For my highly esteemed friend – Antonie Brentano, from the author.”

The treatment of the special score will be permanently housed at the Beethoven Center located at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

The center is planning a concert of the piece on Saturday at 3 p.m. to be performed by the San Jose State University Symphony Orchestra. A pre-concert lecture scheduled for 2:30 p.m. will be hosted by Beethoven scholar Erica Buurman, the incoming director of the Beethoven Center. Admission is free.

The written score will be secured and on display for public viewing at the Hammer Theatre at 101 Paseo De San Antonio in San Jose. From there, the exhibit travels to the Beethoven Center from Oct. 8-Dec. 15.

--Images courtesy of San Jose State University, Beethoven Center