In February 1796, the 25-year-old Beethoven embarked on a concert tour following the same path Mozart had taken seven years earlier, even travelling with their mutual patron Prince Lichnowsky. Many of the works that Beethoven composed in 1796 were written during this tour.
For Beethoven, “a concert tour, in which he could extemporize, perform his two newish concertos (still unpublished), and compose for local musicians or their patrons, formed a natural continuation of his previous activities.” (Barry Cooper, Beethoven, p. 67)
The first stop in Beethoven’s 1796 concert tour was Prague around the beginning of February. This is where Beethoven apparently composed his Six Dances for Violin and Piano (WoO 42), dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky’s wife and to the Prince’s mother-in-law, who lived in Prague.
#Beethoven250 Day 69
6 German Dances for Violin and Piano (WoO 42), 1796
Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego and Italian pianist Francesca Leonardi give these dances a lively performance.
Although Beethoven seems to have performed one or both of his first two piano concertos during his 1796 concert tour, neither of these piano concertos was in its final shape. They would both still undergo much work and revision.