Polonaise, Op. 89 (Beethoven) Polonaise, Op. 89 (Beethoven) The Polonaise in C major, Op. 89, by Ludwig van Beethoven is a polonaise for solo piano, published in 1815. He composed it in December 1814, at a time when the polonaise was becoming a popular dance and class marker among the European nobility. Beethoven was presented as a prominent artist at the ongoing Congress of Vienna, where he met the visiting Russian Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. He dedicated the polonaise to the Empress, and was compensated with a sum of 50 ducats. The piece is Beethoven's first and only published standalone polonaise, and is notable as
Pavane pour une infante défunte playing of the work was "unutterably slow." However, the composer was not impressed by interpretations that plodded. After a performance by Charles Oulmont, Ravel mentioned to him that the piece was called "Pavane for a dead princess", not "dead pavane for a princess". When asked by the composer-conductor Manoah Leide-Tedesco how he arrived at the title "Pavane pour une infante défunte", Ravel smiled coyly and replied, "Do not be surprised, that title has nothing to do with the composition. I simply liked the sound of those words and I put them there, "c'est tout"". But Ravel also stated that the