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When, early in 1823, Beethoven sent six of his Eleven Bagatelles Op.119 to the Leipzig firm of C.F. Peters for their consideration, he received a curtly dismissive response. "Your pieces are not worth the price," the publishers told him, "and you should consider it beneath your dignity to waste time with such trifles that anyone could write." Others, while recognising that Beethoven was essentially a master of large-scale symphonic forms, didn't fail to appreciate the beauty of his miniatures.

Beethoven had, in fact, been composing what he called Kleinigkeiten , or trifles, throughout his life, and the collection of seven Bagatelles issued in 1803 as his Op.33 includes items that go right back to his early years in Bonn. At the opposite end of Beethoven's career stand the six Bagatelles Op.126 - his last word as a composer of piano music, and the only collection of its kind designed from the outset as a unified whole. This is music that already belongs to the spiritual world of the late string quartets Beethoven began composing in its wake.

The description of 'Eleven New Bagatelles' that appeared at the head of the Op.119 set wasn't entirely accurate. Only the last five pieces were of recent vintage: Beethoven composed them for inclusion in the third volume of the Wiener Piano-Forte-Schule issued in 1821 by the horn player and publisher Friedrich Starke. Two of the new pieces, both in C major, were almost certainly discards from the 'Diabelli' Variations Op.120; and, conversely, it seems that Beethoven withdrew one of Starke's pieces, and used it instead to form the opening movement of his Piano Sonata Op.109.

©Misha Donat