Ludwig van Beethoven: "Für Elise" Piano Piece A minor WoO 59

The opening of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” is possibly the best-known piece of “classical” music alongside the beginning of Mozart’s “Little Night Music”.

The opening of Beethoven’s “Für Elise” is possibly the best-known piece of “classical” music alongside the beginning of Mozart’s “Little Night Music”. Incidentally, the musical world has always puzzled over the identity of “Elise”. She is the dedicatee in the first edition that was only published in 1867 by Ludwig Nohl.

He would have been able to consult the autograph at the time – but today it has disappeared. A draft of the work, in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, bears no dedication. Thus the mystery surrounding “Elise” will probably never been resolved, which will not, however, affect the work’s popularity.

Urtext Edition, paperbound