On today’s date in 1827, Beethoven dictated and signed a letter in which he mentions “a new symphony, which lies already sketched in my desk.” This new work would have been Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony.

But in March of 1827, Beethoven was very ill and his friends feared the worst. Even so, Beethoven himself seemed optimistic that he could finish a new symphony as a thank- you for the Philharmonic Society of London. The Society had recently sent him 100 pounds in the hopes it would ease his sickbed, and Beethoven was touched by their kindness. “I will compose a grand symphony for them,” he told visitors.

But eight days later Beethoven died, and for the next 150 years most people disputed that he had in fact sketched out such a new symphony. It wasn’t until the 1960s that scholars started sorting through Beethoven’s sketchbooks and not until the 1980s that evidence surfaced to prove it.

The British Beethoven scholar, Barry Cooper, went so far as to assemble a performing version of Beethoven’s sketches for the first movement of his Tenth Symphony. Appropriately enough, as Beethoven intended his new symphony for a British premiere, the first recording of Cooper’s reconstruction was made by the LONDON Symphony.

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Beethoven's Tenth?

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