Franz Ignaz Beck’s Keyboard Sonatas
The following articles are extracted from the album booklet of Beck: Sonatas for Keyboard Op. 5, available on CD and Streaming 27 June 2025 via Leaf Music Distribution and Nacos.
Preview Tracks
Track Listing
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 1 in E-Flat Major. Andante grazioso
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 2 in F Major. Andante
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 3 in B-Flat Major. Allegro
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 4 in F Major "La Resolue". Tempo di minuetto
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 5 in A Major. Presto
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 6 in F Minor "La Mendiante". Tempo moderato - Allegro majiore
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 7 in F Major. Moderato
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: Minuetto in B-Flat Major - B-Flat Minor
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 8 in B-Flat Major. Allegretto
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 9 in B-Flat Major. Andante grazioso
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: Allegretto in C Major
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 10 in B-Flat Major. Grazioso
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 11 in G Major. Allegretto
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 12 in E-Flat Major. Andante grazioso
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 13 in G Major. Andantino
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 14 in G Major. Minuetto primo - Minuetto secondo minore
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 15 in G Major "La de Laroze". Suite
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 16 in F Major. Allegro con spirito
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 17 in G Major. Andantino
Keyboard Sonata, Op. 5: No. 18 in E-Flat Major "La Souveraine". Allegro maestoso
Recorded at teh Nikomedeskirche, Weilheim-Tübingen by Jakub Klimeš
Essay: Franz to François:
A Mannheimer in France
Beck’s Life and Works
Above: Portrait of Beck, depicted in 1795
Franz Ignaz Beck (1734–1809) was a German composer, violinist, director, and keyboardist, and an important representative of the Mannheim School working in France. Born in Mannheim, Beck initially received musical training from his father, Johann Aloys Beck, a skilled oboist and choir director at the Palatine court. After the unexpected early death of his father in 1742, his formal musical education was taken on by the famous composer, violin virtuoso, and director of the Mannheim Court Orchestra, Johann Stamitz. Beck also sang in choir as a boy, as he was documented as a discantist at the the Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg from 1745–46. Recognizing Beck’s potential, Elector Carl Theodor provided substantial support for his musical education.
Beck’s early career was dramatically impacted by a rumoured duel. According to accounts of his later student Henri-Louis Blanchard, Beck became embroiled in a jealous intrigue that escalated into a duel, during which he believed he had killed his opponent—who had actually feigned death. To avoid repercussions, Beck fled and travelled extensively throughout Italy, performing concerts and refining his compositional abilities. During this period, he reportedly studied under the esteemed Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi. Beck also married, eloping to Naples with Anna Oniga, the daughter of his employer. By the late 1750s, Beck moved to France, initially settling in Marseilles as concertmaster of a theatre orchestra and composer. His works, especially symphonies, quickly gained popularity, leading to widespread performances and publications across France, where he is marketed as one of Carl Theodor’s musicians; publication title pages of the period, like his Op. 1 symphonies (1758), report his affiliation as “Virtuoso di Camera di Sua A.S. L’Elector Palatino & Disepolo di Gioan Stamitz.” By the early 1760s, Beck relocated permanently to Bordeaux, becoming a central figure in the city’s cultural life. He served as director of Bordeaux’s Grand Théâtre, where he led the orchestra and composed theatrical works, and he held the position of organist at the Basilica of Saint-Seurin from 1774–88. In 1786, Beck was appointed “Commissaire du Comité de musique” by the newly founded Musée society (later the Société Philomathique). Under his direction, the concerts became a permanent, professional, and nationally acclaimed institution. Beck introduced the citizens of Bordeaux to important contemporary compositions, particularly his former colleagues from the Mannheim School.
Above: The Port of Bordeaux, France (1804) by Pierre Lacour the Elder
Beck was also known as a skilled teacher, proficient in violin, organ, harpsichord, and pianoforte. Among his notable students were Henri-Louis Blanchard, Pierre-Jean Garat, Pierre Gaveaux, Bernard Germain Lacépède, Prosper-Charles Simon, and Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. During the French Revolution, Beck faced a tribunal on November 28, 1793, along with the entire theater ensemble. Fortunately, he proved his innocence and was released on January 6, 1794. Beck continued to contribute significantly to Bordeaux’s cultural prestige until his death in 1809.
Beck’s musical legacy is extensive, encompassing symphonies, keyboard sonatas, vocal compositions, and operatic works. Beck’s symphonic compositions exhibit the dramatic intensity characteristic of the Sturm und Drang movement, notable for their bold harmonic progressions, emotional turbulence, and intense contrasts. Among Beck’s major achievements is the Stabat Mater, premièred at Paris’s prestigious Concert Spirituel in 1783. This work received wide acclaim, including that of Queen Marie-Antoinette, enhancing his international reputation. Additionally, Beck composed several operas and stage works for Bordeaux and Paris, though many of these compositions have since been lost. During the French Revolution, Beck engaged actively by composing patriotic works, notably the Hymne à l’être suprême in 1794. His contributions were formally recognized in 1803 when he was appointed correspondent of music composition at the Institut de France. Beck’s music, rediscovered by 20th-century musicologists, continues to be celebrated for its originality, as one of the most innovative of Carl Theodor’s musicians.
Beck’s Op. 5 Sonatas: Sources and Context
Beck’s Op. 5, “18 Sonates pour le Clavecin ou le Piano Forte,” published in Paris around 1772 or earlier, are charming, modern, and galant pieces reflecting Beck’s well-formed compositional skills during his tenure in Bordeaux. Beck’s Op. 5 was published by Chevardiere—also the publisher of Beck’s earlier symphonies—contains 18 one-movement sonatas and 2 additional short pieces. Some are descriptive character pieces inspired by prominent figures in Bordeaux’s musical, theatrical, and cultural life.
Above: Beck’s Opus V title page
Above: Beck’s Opus V No. 1
Several manuscripts attributed to Beck contain large collections of keyboard pieces, and the published Op. 5 sonatas seem to be drawn from these sources, now preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. One such source a manuscript entitled “Sonates pour le clavecin” contains over 50 pieces, while another contains 12 pieces including descriptive titles. Although the character titles are not preserved in the published version, they are included here for additional context. Additionally, several more of the Op. 5 pieces were included in another collection: the “Fantaisie pour le Clavecin ou Piano Forte” by François Beck, published in Dresden by P. C. Hiltscher, which is preserved in the Library of the Brussels Conservatoire.
The musicologist Georges de Saint-Foix noted that while Beck’’s earlier symphonic compositions differ stylistically from his keyboard pieces, Beck’s transition to the pianoforte allowed him to absorb many influences prevalent around 1770. Saint-Foix specifically highlighted stylistic overlap between Beck’s Op. 5 and the works of Johann Schobert, another German composer working in France, and Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J.S. Bach, nicknamed the London Bach (whose music was popular in France at this time as well as in Mannheim, since Bach was engaged twice by Carl Theodor to write operas there during the 1770s). Saint-Foix expressed surprise that Beck, perceived as relatively unproductive in keyboard works, could have authored such an extensive and varied collection. It is entirely plausible that these pieces were performed by Beck in Bordeaux salons, and may even have served for pedagogical aids for his many students, as they vary in technical demands from relatively simple to more involved.
But beyond the influences of J.C. Bach and Schobert, Beck’s sonatas demonstrate a knowledge and intimacy with the older masters of the French harpsichord school in the Pièces de clavecin genre. Not only is this found in the prevalence of character pieces, but it manifests in the use of rondeau form, the periodicity of dance phrasing, and the majeur-minore duality found in many of the sonatas, recalling echoes of François Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jacques Du Phly, and Claude Balbastre. For instance, these elements are evident in Sonatas No. 5 and 6, as well as the many dances like the Minuetto,No. 11, and 14.
Interpreting Beck’s Sonatas: Epitomizing Galanterie
Above: Galanterie depicted in a hunting scene in Frankenthal porcelain, c.1760s
Emerging from the broader ideal of the honnête homme—an accomplished, moral, and refined gentleman prevalent in seventeenth-century French culture—the galant homme epitomized eighteenth-century elegance, charm, and social ease. While the honnête homme cultivated manners and broad cultural knowledge without ostentation, the galant homme represented a more playful, sparkling affability, characterized by courtly flirtation, sophisticated wit, and graceful sociability. Charles Rollin’s influential treatise De la manière d’enseigner et étudier belles lettres, traité des études (1726-28) positioned rhetoric and polite conversation as central tools for cultivating the galant homme, who excelled in salons and social gatherings.
This shift towards galanterie was mirrored in the arts, especially music. Eighteenth-century galant music paralleled the qualities esteemed in the ideal gentleman: elegance, wit, charm, clarity, and sensibility. Composers like Johann Mattheson promoted a style that rejected Baroque complexity in favour of graceful melodies and simpler harmonies, appealing directly to the listener’s sensibility rather than intellectual rigour alone. Music of the galant style was believed not only to reflect but also to shape moral virtue and social harmony. Many eighteenth-century writers emphasized music’s capacity to evoke benevolent feelings, promoting civility and refined emotional expression. Galant music thus embodied sociable and amicable sentiments that encouraged polite interaction, warmth, and graceful engagement in social settings, reinforcing the Enlightenment ideals of community and interpersonal harmony. Moreover, galant style was closely aligned with rococo charm and sensibility, reflecting the broader cultural aesthetic of playful elegance, ornamental delicacy, and emotional expressiveness. This linkage is evident in the refined artistic expressions of Watteau and the decorative curves typical of Louis XV-style interiors, where the ideals of galanterie—lightness, finesse, and refined sentiment—prevailed. However, the emotional landscape of the mid-eighteenth century saw the rise of the Sturm und Drang movement in Germany, which challenged the polished emotional restraint of the galant style. Sturm und Drang embraced deeper emotional intensity, roughness, turbulence, and dramatic contrasts, representing an exploration of the natural sublime characterized by awe, fear, and the infinite. This shift heralded the more profound emotional explorations that would define Romanticism. At the same time, the picturesque emerged as a aesthetic category in visual arts and architecture. Emphasizing asymmetry, texture, and variety, the picturesque favoured scenes of natural spontaneity softened by human presence or traces of civilization.
An excellent example is Carl Theodor’s extensive palace gardens at his summer residence in Schwetzingen. Here, the carefully structured French garden, marked by geometric arrangements of sculpted hedges and flower patches, transitions seamlessly into an English garden, embracing a more organic and natural aesthetic, filled with faux Roman ruins presented in their rough, sublime grandeur. This garden was intentionally designed as a princely Arcadia—a stylized pastoral paradise that recalled the idealized landscapes of antiquity. Within this constructed Arcadian environment, visitors encountered whimsical Rococo elements, including hedge mazes and decorative sculptures evoking classical myths, intended to inspire leisurely reflection and sociable delight. Such settings combined the visual charm and playful elegance of Rococo with the philosophical and aesthetic ideals of picturesque sensibility, embodying a synthesis of natural beauty and cultivated refinement characteristic of eighteenth-century taste. In music, this translated into expressive, structural forms, where the artful arrangement of contrasts and irregularity evoked natural landscapes, juxtaposing yet somehow harmonizing roughness and order.
AboveL Schloss Schwetzingen, and gardens
AboveL Schloss Schwetzingen, and gardens
Above: Obelisk and faux Roman ruins of an aquaduct, Gardens of Schwetzingen
Above: Gardens of Schwetzingen
Beck’s sonatas lie somewhere in this intellectual and cultural framework. They are full of wit, charm, and coquetry, and while galanterie is sometimes deemed superficial and empty by proponents of “serious music,” these pieces certainly reflect an important dimension of the human spirit. Putting the demands of monumental Romantic works or contemporary “originality” on light-hearted pieces like the sonatas presented here fails to comprehend them in their context and prevents them from fulfilling their true essence.
Nevertheless, performing such works requires the player to have the utmost sensibility to and conviction in these ideas: emotionally distant performances will unlikely capture the ecstatic earnestness and delight so inherent to the galanterie. Consider the very first sonata in the collection: it opens with the utmost tenderness and amiability, and invites the listener with warm pleas. The challenge in such repertoire is to convey all of these elements in such a charming manner that they are truly believable and become infectious to listeners.
Above: Square piano used in this recording
Beck’s keyboard works are certainly more refined and tempered by benevolent sentiments in comparison to the unhinged boldness and harmonic daring of his earlier symphonies. But under the charming galant facade lies an emotional intensity, which sometimes dares to rear its head. Most of the sonatas have an amicable, charming theme, full of cheerfulness and flirtatiousness. However, these moments of rococo playfulness are interrupted by anxious, frightening episodes: for example, the distressing mistiness in the middle section of Sonata No. 3, or the Secondo of the B-flat major minuet, which shifts into a dark, confused B-flat minor digression. The only sonata in minor mode in the collection, No. 6, which bears the title “La Mendiante” (The Beggar), also takes on a dark tone, with an incessantly driving – yet desperately pleading – march theme that becomes increasingly anguished in florid arpeggios. The majeur section though, is filled with blissful relief – only to return to the desperation at the close. The minuet-based sonata No. 14 is far from the more refined manner typically associated with the minuet. It is boisterous, virtuosic, and full of musical jokes, almost prefiguring the Scherzo form later used by Beethoven. Its second minuet episode in G-minor is audaciously stormy, beginning with an intense flurry of passagework in a display of brilliance. The final sonata No. 18, which is titled “La Souveraine” (The Sovereigness), is perhaps the closest to the Mannheim symphonic idiom established by Stamitz, Fils, and Cannabich. Its grand majesty is filled with driving rhythms and flourishing intensity, and is full of the exciting, rapidly rising figures which musicologist Hugo Riemann termed the “Mannheim Rocket.”
This album showcases an original English fortepianos from the collection of Anders Muskens: a Longman & Broderip square piano, crafted in London in 1788 and meticulously restored in Amsterdam in 2018 by Paul Kobald. Longman & Broderip was a renowned music firm during the eighteenth century, renowned for its publications and instruments. Longman & Broderip instruments were regularly imported into France before the Revolution, and even Haydn acquired one of their grand pianos in 1794–95. However, the firm was also a pioneer in square piano design, which became popular choices for domestic settings. The instrument featured on this recording incorporates the patent-action of 1787 by John Geib, an innovative engineer employed by Longman & Broderip. Geib’s patent introduced significant improvements to the piano’s mechanism, enhancing playability and dynamic control. His “grasshopper” mechanical action, an evolution of the older English single-action design popularized by Johannes Zumpe, became widely adopted by square piano makers across the United Kingdom and beyond by the early nineteenth century.
The instrument featured in this recording has a limited 5-octave compass and three hand stops, including a divided-damper lift and a delicate harp stop. One pedal allows the front section of the lid to open and close, creating a lid-swell effect that adds dynamic and timbral possibilities, which are effectively utilized in many of the sonatas. The charming, yet delicate tone of this instrument is very well-suited to the demands of the galanterie: just like the beautiful, yet fragile, rococo scenes produced in porcelain at Carl Theodor’s manufactory in Frankenthal.
Anders Muskens
©2025 Anders Muskens, including photographs.
