Name that tune

[Christopher]

Are we allowed a little channel on here for pieces of (romantic, obviously) music that we just can't name? Or would that be too naff? There was a piano piece on a tv show last Sunday that is driving me insane for want of not being able to identify it...

[Mark Thomas]

I don't see why not. Ask away...

[Christopher]

Thanks Mark!  OK, so , UK channel ITV is currently airing a show called Victoria, about Queen Victoria. It's hardly highbrow and certainly not historical, but very watchable!

Part 3 was last Sunday. At the end, Albert enters for the first time, while Victoria is playing the piano. But what is she playing?!  It sounds like Beethoven but I just can't place it.  I recorded it with my iphone here, it's 69 seconds long - http://www.mediafire.com/download/x924x57l82daxmi/Victoria.m4a

[Alan Howe]

Sounds like cod-classical to me. Maybe this listing gives a few clues:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5137338/fullcredits?ref_=ttco_sa_1

[Adrian Harrison]

It's the finale of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F Minor op 2 no 1.

[minacciosa]

Beethoven Piano Sonata No.1, Op.2 4th movement "Prestissimo".

[Alan Howe]

Oops. Well done the experts! Must put Beethoven's piano sonatas on my wants list.

[Double-A]

Early Beethoven tends to be neglected; I won't quite say "unsung".  Early Mozart , early Haydn, early Mendelssohn even (note that Mendelssohn did not want to have it published) tend to be rather dull though there are more inspired pieces also.  But Beethoven was ambitious; he aimed to make sure he was competitive with what was out there--Haydn and Mozart--before he started publishing.  Those early works are masterpieces in their style--and not just the ones in c-minor--just as much as Beethoven's middle and late works are in their more advanced style.

[Alan Howe]

I certainly don't know this repertoire - to my shame.

[Christopher]

Thanks chaps!  No longer going stir crazy.... And what a great piece! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-PuqndNGV4

[eschiss1]

Belatedly in response to Double-A's post about earlyish Classical vs. transitional-Romantic (early Haydn vs. early Beethoven, say) ... I want to agree in part but even then with provisos, since if you're comparing Mozart's first symphony K.16 with Beethoven's "first piano sonata" Op.2 No.1 you are comparing apples with oranges: the latter is not Beethoven's first piano sonata by a far sight, for starters, it's his first acknowledged, mature piano sonata, for example (there's -quite- a lot of music Beethoven wrote in Bonn before Opp.1/2, some of which was published, much not at the time. As early a biographer as Thayer points out that this music was unknown for some while to Beethoven biographers, leading to a misperception of Beethoven as having sprouted as fully-formed as Athene, to use an analogy used by another for another ...)
(I will make no excuses for Mozart's early piano sonatas K.28x, which really aren't among the better parts of his output; but still maybe try K.457 among his sonatas, or K.491 among his concertos, or K.427/317b among his masses, if on the basis of the former alone one has given up on the composer... I can only suggest.)
Another reason too why Classical-era music goes by more quickly (even than its actual briefer duration) and seems "duller" than it sometimes really is, can lie in our own training and expectations (temporal, and otherwise)- to paraphrase Alfred Einstein, moreso than in later generations, the composer of his era could count on shared expectations and tradition (and play with/within them- there's a reason or five why several authors refer to Mozart as a revolutionary conservative, not the other way around, and why the adjective makes sense and not just the noun, but this isn't the time or especially forum. I will recommend Einstein's book though, "Mozart: His Character, His Work" as an interesting and relevant read.)

[semloh]

I have this on an ABC CD, played by Geoffrey Lancaster. I am reminded that I haven't listened to it for ages. Clearly time to get re-acquainted!

[Christopher]

Cod-classical indeed Alan...

[Double-A]

Even more belatedly in response to eschiss1.

I want to agree in part but even then with provisos...

I agree with all the provisos you make.  Beethoven's case is different from Haydn/Mozart because the works from op. 1 to symphony no. 1 are called "early" by music historians--essentially a convention, though not a useless one.  There is no comparably formalized "early-middle-late" pattern in musicology about any other composer I am aware of.  For most composers other than Beethoven "early" means "not quite mature yet".  Yet Beethoven's early (or "early") works tend to be neglected, implicitly signaling lower quality.  And this is what my post aimed at.