The / MOUNT of OLIVES, / A Sacred Oratorio, / Composed by / L. V. BEETHOVEN, / As Performed in the Oratorios / at the / THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE, / The Vocal Parts in Score / ADAPTED TO ENGLISH WORDS, / and the Instrumental Parts Arranged for the / Piano Forte / BY / Sir George Smart.

London: Sir G. Smart; Chappell & Co. . [ca. 1813]. First English edition. Upright folio. 96 pp. Engraved throughout. On t.p. above imprint: Ent. at Sta. Hall. Price £ 1,,1,,O. Title (v.b.); Table of contents and translator's note (v.b.); Blank; music 2 - 96pp. Period marbled boards, quarter brown leather, boards worn, spine chipped at extremities, internally very good throughout, moderate handling stains in some margins, a few early markings in ink in margins, generally clean. Chappel at imprint address ca. 1811-1819. Cf. Humphries & Smith, Music publishing in the British Isles (Oxford, 1970), p. 101; Kinsky-Halm p. 236.


"'Christus' was begun in late 1802 (or possibly early 1803), shortly after Beethoven's emotional crisis that had led to depths of despair and resulted in the Heiligenstadt Testament of 6-10 October 1802. Many of the ideas contained in the Heiligenstadt Testament are closely echoed in the oratorio, and Beethoven may have chosen this text deliberately as a means of expressing his personal suffering in a universal way...'Christus' was first performed on 5 April 1803 and was revised the following year, but it was not published until 1811." (Barry Cooper, "The Beethoven Compendium," p. 255)


In 1813, conductor George Smart became an original member of the London Philharmonic Society and principal conductor of the city concerts and the Lent oratorios, at which in 1814 he produced for the first time in England, Beethoven's ‘Mount of Olives’ in his own arrangement. He was later joint organist of the Chapel Royal, St. James's and was musical director of Covent Garden under Charles Kemble. In 1826, he led the first English performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. (8490)

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