Bagatelle in A Minor

For all the influence his sonatas and Diabelli Variations exerted, Beethoven’s best-known piano piece is likely to be the unassuming little bagatelle “Für Elise”. Composed around 1810 but never published during his lifetime, it bears simplicity that places it well within the ability of even the most modest amateur pianist: indeed, there can barely be a piano pupil who hasn’t played it. Of the mysterious Elise of the title, though, there is no trace. The piece is often assumed to have been composed as a gift for a certain Therese Malfatti, one of a string of young women to whom Beethoven plighted his unsuccessful troth. The manuscript was discovered in her effects after her death in 1851; it is now lost, so we will never know, but it most likely said “Für Therese” in Beethoven’s famously illegible scrawl. Nevertheless, it is a delightful gift, made instantly recognisable by its rocking melody and characteristic broken-chord accompaniment.