The origins of the short piano piece catalogued as WoO 60 can be found in Thayer / Forbes (p. 715):
“In his letter to Hauschka Beethoven remarked that he was compelled to do a lot of ‘scribbling’ for the sake of money in order to procure leisure for great works. One such pot-boiler was a pianoforte piece in B-flat which bears the inscription ‘written upon request on the afternoon of August 14, 1818 by Beethoven.’ There are sketches for the piece, however, among those for the last movement of the B-flat Sonata.”
That would be the famous Hammerklavier, coming up tomorrow.
Forbes appends to Thayer’s account: “Added to the inscription are the words ‘written upon the request of a lady unknown to him.’ According to A.B. Marx, this lady was the Polish pianist, Marie Szymanowska.”
#Beethoven250 Day 310
Bagatelle in B♭ Major (WoO 60), 1818
This piece is frequently recorded but apparently rarely performed live.