A newly-discovered sketch leaf by Beethoven for one of his greatest works, the “Emperor” concerto, is heading for auction at Sotheby’s.The manuscript is one of the earliest for this great work, possibly containing Beethoven’s first draft of its famous themes. It is undocumented, unpublished and new to auction. It has an estimate at hammer prices of £150,000-200,000 (as much as $300,000) at Sotheby’s in London on October 20, 2016.The confirmed draft is an oddity when most of the surviving sketches for the Fifth Piano Concerto are in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, and the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. While done at the same time and in Beehoven’s distinctive hand, the new paper is not directly from either sketchbook. Its English book collector owner was aware it was by Beethoven, Sothey’s said, and it was among hundreds of other items, some being included in a sixth sale of his library by the auction house.Musical historians said the fragment is significant because it reveals the composer’s working processes. The concerto was in evolution and the sketches at the top of the page would later be included in two different movements. At the bottom is a sketch for the first movement. Some of the passage was not incorporated into the final version, showing Beethoven’s experimental approach. The final work is seminal work in that the composer reinvents the piano concerto from its 18th-century format, employing scarcely used keys such as C flat and B major as well as the highest and lowest ranges of the piano.The Fifth Piano Concerto in E flat major is dedicated to Austria’s Archduke Rudolf, brother of Francis II and Beethoven’s friend and patron and pupil, the only one that he taught composition to. Manuscripts by the composer regularly come to the market because he tended to keep the notes as well as the final compositions, whereas other writers would discard everything except for the finished version. A part of the late Opus 127 string quartet sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2003 for the equivalent of more than $2 million. Another single sheet found in a Connecticut home, of the less famous “King Stephen,” sold for $100,000 last year. The larger the document and more significant the work, the more it tends to sell for, said dealers.
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