Lost part of Beethoven masterpiece lives again

A piece of music composed by Beethoven in 1799 and lost for over 200 years has been painstakingly reconstructed by a Professor of Music at The University of Manchester. Professor Barry Cooper's reconstruction of the original slow movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in G, Opus 18 Number 2, will be heard in something like its original form this week, in a performance by the University's resident string quartet Quatuor Danel. The movement was composed in 1799 but was discarded a year later and lost when it was replaced by a new movement now known to music lovers across the world. It is almost certainly the first time, says Professor Cooper, that the piece will have been performed since Beethoven's day. Although the original movement is lost, detailed sketches survive for every one of its 74 bars, as was established in 1977 by Sieghard Brandenburg. It is only since then, however, that it has become clear that Beethoven actually finished the movement and wrote it out at the time. Professor Cooper has now managed to put the 74 bars together so that they fit perfectly, adding harmony and other details that enable the work to be performed again.