Editing the Beethoven symphonies for Bärenreiter (they were published between 1996 and 2000) was an extraordinary voyage of discovery. The problem with voyages of discovery, however, is the implicit admission that earlier conclusions suffered from ignorance of perceptions gained later, hence might then require embarrassing revision. In the end this only concerned two general areas, neither of sufficient importance to warrant changes in subsequent printings and their attendant confusion: internal double bars at changes of key and time signature, which copyists and engravers often notated but Beethoven did not, and short hairpins, which were printed as modern accents according to the current thinking, but ought properly to be notated somewhat longer, and always beneath the note, as Schubert (notoriously) did. Both these features were introduced into our Beethoven editions for all subsequent genres.

But just two other issues could not be so blithely put to one side, and have accordingly been corrected (and highlighted in footnotes) subsequent to the first printing of our editions.

Symphony No.8, Trio

In all performances in living memory, the florid cello line has been played by the whole section. However, in all the authentic sources it is marked Solo. This need not necessarily indicate any conflict; there are places in the orchestral repertoire where Solo can denote a solo for the whole section (i.e. soli), such as Weber Symphony No.1 (I 147 Vla, Vc), Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 (II 99 Vla, III 206 Vla, Vc), Dvořák Serenade for strings (V 162 Vl 2), even Haydn Die Schöpfung (No.1 bar 32 Cb, no question of Haydn assuming only one Cb in this piece). In 1997 I therefore made the decision that “this was the standard designation for an exposed passage intended for the whole section”.

Alas, however, those were almost certainly the wrong points of reference. The clear antecedent for this cello solo is surely the trio (again) of Haydn Symphony No.95, and other similarly soloistic trios such as Haydn Symphony Nos. 6 and 8 (Cb), 7 (Vc). These are surely more convincing precedents, and the conclusion has to be that Beethoven did mean it to be played by one solo player. The main difference for the published material is that in that case, gli altri Vc need to play col Basso, so their copies need to include the Cb line; this has (belatedly) been rectified.