Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio (The Rage over the Lost Penny)

Description

Piano

• Italian: Rondo alla ingharese quasi un capriccio

• German: Die Wut über den verlorenen Groschen, ausgetobt in einer Caprice

• English: Rondo in the Hungarian [gypsy] style, almost a caprice

The famous Rondo a Capriccio is an example of the lighter side of the composer, who is usually labeled as a weighty and earnest master. Written in 1794/95, it was inexplicably left unpublished. This firework of dazzling ideas presents the cheeky theme in ever new variations and ends after two Intermezzi in G minor and E flat major with an exuberant finale.

The indication alla ingharese is of interest, as no such word as “ingharese” exists in standard Italian. To people of Beethoven's day, “Gypsy music” and “Hungarian music” were synonymous terms. Beethoven seems to have conflated alla zingarese (in the Gypsy style) and all'ongarese (in the Hungarian style) to come up with a unique term alla ingharese.