Professor Barry Cooper – Reconstructing Beethoven

On 31 October 2018, our world-renowned Beethoven scholar Professor Barry Cooper gave a lecture to the University of Manchester Alumni Association in the Prudential Hall of the China Exchange, London, on his work reconstructing some of Beethoven’s music from his sketches.

Beethoven left behind many thousands of pages of sketches for his compositions. Deciphering and interpreting them is a considerable challenge, but they provide a fascinating insight into his composing methods. They also include works that are incomplete in some way – either Beethoven didn’t finish them or material has been lost.

In his lecture, Professor Cooper gave several examples, including a revised version of his famous FürElise, and the first movement of his Tenth Symphony, which Professor Cooper has completed from the sketches.

Barry’s reconstruction of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony is to receive a live performance on Friday 23 November 2018, at the Holy Name Church, Oxford Road, Manchester.