Oh Sweet Were the Hours: Beethoven: Scottish Folk Songs Op. 108

Müller and the Hammer Clavier Trio make nuanced and elegant work of Beethoven’s ingenious arrangements...sometimes we could perhaps have done, expressively, with a little less refined gentleman... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 26th Feb 2021
Catalogue No: RCD1062
Label: Rubicon
Length: 48 minutes

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days

Excerpt, Beethoven: Scottish Songs (25), Op. 108

Work length36:42

$11.00

$14.30

$17.60

Rufus Müller (soloist)
Hammer Clavier Trio

XXV. Sally in Our Alley (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:27

$1.00

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$1.60

IV. Maid of Isla (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length2:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XVI. Could this Ill World (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length2:46

$1.00

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$1.60

XVII. Oh Mary, at thy window be (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length2:20

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

II. Sunset (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:54

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

X. Sympathy (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length2:58

$1.00

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$1.60

XII. Oh, had my fate (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XXIII. The Shepherd's Song (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:02

$1.00

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VIII. The lovely lass of Inverness (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:20

$1.00

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XVIII. Enchantress, farewell (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:41

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XX. Faithfu' Johnnie (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length4:40

$1.00

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Beethoven: Polly Stewart, WoO 156 No. 7

Work length2:00

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Rufus Müller (soloist)
Hammer Clavier Trio

Excerpt, Beethoven: Scottish Songs (25), Op. 108

Work length9:33

$3.00

$3.90

$4.80

Rufus Müller (soloist)
Hammer Clavier Trio

III. Oh! Sweet were the hours (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length4:08

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

XXIV. Again, My Lyre (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

VII. Bonnie Laddie (Scottish Folksong Arrangements)

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.30

$1.60

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George Thomson, an enterprising collector and publisher based in Edinburgh, reached out beyond domestic British talent to (among others) Haydn, Carl Maria von Weber and Beethoven to continue the work established by Joseph Haydn and William Napier in the 1790s.

Always attracted to potential publishing exploitation, Beethoven took an avid interest in what Haydn’s folksong venture had begun; and an appealing additional incentive was the commission fee. Haydn’s rate had been a British pound per song - about £138 in today’s money - a detail which Beethoven made known in negotiations with Thomson.

However, as Beethoven biographer Barry Cooper suggests, the composer also sensed beyond monetary compensation the perennial power of the folk-melody and the potential ensuing benefit of his own musical association with the project, so as to create with Thomson a folksong movement for future generations.

Beethoven delivered the challenging arrangements and Thomson struggled to sell them, asking Beethoven if he could simplify his arrangements. Beethoven’s wonderfully dusty response was “I am not accustomed to retouching my compositions: I have never done so, certain of the truth that any partial change alters the character of the composition. I am sorry that you are the loser, but you cannot blame me, since it was up to you to make me better acquainted with the taste of your country and the little facility of your performers.”

Reviews

May 2021

Müller and the Hammer Clavier Trio make nuanced and elegant work of Beethoven’s ingenious arrangements...sometimes we could perhaps have done, expressively, with a little less refined gentleman of the salon, a little more Burnsian raconteur of the tavern. But Müller excels in the more touching songs, such as ‘Sunset’, with its delicate interplay of instruments.

Oh Sweet Were the Hours

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