Beethoven celebration:

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Beethoven celebration:

Post by Barry Barnitz »

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Beethoven in 1804.

Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770. In honor of the composer, I will provide a survey of Beethoven’s piano concertos. Discounting an early unpublished piano concerto, the Piano Concerto No. 0 in E-flat major ,WoO 4 (1784), (an existing score of the piano part, with suggestions about orchestration is extant), Beethoven composed five piano concertos.

· Piano Concerto No.1, C, op.15 (1798)
· Piano Concerto No.2, B flat, op.19 (1795)
· Piano Concerto No.3, C minor, op.37 (c 1800)
· Piano Concerto No.4, G, op. 58 (1806)
· Piano Concerto No.5, ‘Emperor’, E flat, op.73 (1809)

It is customary to divide Beethoven's compositions as falling within three periods: Early (1776 - 1802), Middle (1803 - 1814), and Late (1815- 1827). Beethoven's first three piano concertos were composed during the early period, with the third concerto foreshadowing the middle period. Concertos four and five occupy the middle period. Beethoven composed no more piano concertos after the fifth, most likely a result of his increasing deafness, a condition that effectively ended his career as a public performer.
(Wikipedia)
In his Early period, Beethoven's work was strongly influenced by his predecessors Haydn and Mozart. He also explored new directions and gradually expanded the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces from the Early period are the first and second symphonies, the set of six string quartets Opus 18, the first two piano concertos, and the first dozen or so piano sonatas, including the famous Pathétique sonata, Op. 13.

His Middle (Heroic) period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis brought on by his recognition of encroaching deafness. It includes large-scale works that express heroism and struggle. Middle-period works include six symphonies (Nos. 3 - 8 ), the last three piano concertos, the Triple Concerto and violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), several piano sonatas (including the Moonlight, Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas), the Kreutzer violin sonata and Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio.

Beethoven's Late period began around 1815. Works from this period are characterized by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression. The String Quartet, Op. 131 has seven linked movements, and the Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement. Other compositions from this period include the Missa Solemnis, the last five string quartets (including the massive Große Fuge) and the last five piano sonatas.
I will attempt to provide multiple performances, both to reflect interpretations, and as a protection against future dead links.

Resources
Beethoven, Wikipedia
IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library: Beethoven

See also
Mozart Celebration


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Beethoven’s birthplace, Bonn. Now a museum.
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Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19

Post by Barry Barnitz »

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Beethoven ca. 1787

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven between 1787 and 1789. The work was published in 1801; the Concerto No. 1 in C, although composed later, was published first. The opening movement of the concerto is in sonata form (double exposition, development, recapitulation). The middle slow movement is in ternary form (ABA). The concluding rondo is in ABACABA form.
Program Notes: Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra
Despite being titled no.2, this concerto was in fact written before its C major companion, and was thus Beethoven's first major orchestral piece. The composer himself was the soloist at the first performance in 1795 in Vienna, where he had recently moved from his home town of Bonn. At the time he was studying composition under Haydn, and was already beginning to make a name for himself as a sought-after pianist. The concerto was subsequently extensively revised and reissued three years later.

In view of its relatively infrequent appearance in the concert repertoire, it may perhaps be argued that the B flat concerto is unjustly neglected, for the score reveals a remarkably sure hand in the development of inspired phrases and themes which belies the youthfulness of its composer.

The first movement opens with a full length exposition by the orchestra of the wealth of material to be used, much of it based on the opening bars which establish an immediate contrast between a feeling of vivacity and a mood of contemplation. When the soloist enters it is with a fresh theme, the first of any appreciable length, but the true second subject follows later, again introduced by the soloist. A notable feature of this movement is the way in which Beethoven keeps these thematic elements, often little more than scraps of melody, under taut control, and shows a near infallible sense of which should be developed and which recapitulated without further attention.

The adagio is a profound and moving dialogue between the piano and the orchestra, essentially mono-thematic, with a sustained breadth of phrase and a tendency to interrupt the melody by rests, as though the underlying passion was too strong for the music to support. At the end of the movement there is a strange recitative marked "con gran expressione" where the soloist plays a rhythmically decorated series of arpeggios, intermittently broken by fragments of the main theme by the strings. The effect is strangely moving.

The concluding rondo, on a theme that Haydn must have relished, includes a new theme that is more than a mere "episode", first announced by the piano in F major, but later to reappear in the tonic key, thus giving the finale the character not only of a rondo, but also of something nearer to a symphonic first movement.
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Vienna Burgtheater, site of the premier performance

The concerto is performed by Krystian Zimerman, leading the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
1. Allegro con brio part 1
1. Allegro con brio part 2
2. Adagio
3. Rondo molto allegro

Resources
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Beethoven), Wikipedia
Score:International Music Score Library Project

Additional performances
Glenn Gould, piano, with the Columbia Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
1. Allegro con brio part 1
1. Allegro con brio part 1
2. Adagio
3. Rondo molto allegro
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Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

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Beethoven ca. 24 years old

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1796 - 1797. Beethoven premiered the work in Prague in 1798. The opening movement is in sonata form (double exposition, development, recapitulation). The middle slow movement in ternary form (ABA). The concluding rondo is in ABACABA form.
Program notes:Kennedy Center

"His genius, his magnetic personality were acknowledged by all, and there was, besides, a gaiety and animation about the young Beethoven that people found immensely attractive. The troubles of boyhood were behind him: his father had died very shortly after his departure from Bonn [in 1792], and by 1795 his brothers were established in Vienna, Caspar Karl as a musician, Johann as an apothecary. During his first few months in the capital, he had indeed been desperately poor, depending very largely on the small salary allowed him by the Elector of Bonn. But that was all over now. He had no responsibilities, and his music was bringing in enough to keep him in something like affluence. He had a servant, for a short time he even had a horse; he bought smart clothes, he learned to dance (though not with much success), and there is even mention of his wearing a wig! We must not allow our picture of the later Beethoven to throw its dark colors over these years of his early triumphs. He was a young giant exulting in his strength and his success, and a youthful confidence gave him a buoyancy that was both attractive and infectious. Even in 1791, before he left Bonn, Carl Junker could describe him as 'this amiable, lighthearted man.' And in Vienna he had much to raise his spirits and nothing (at first) to depress them."

Peter Latham painted this cheerful picture of the young Beethoven as Vienna knew him during his twenties, the years before his deafness, his recurring illnesses and his titanic struggles with his mature compositions had produced the familiar, dour figure of his later years. Beethoven came to Vienna for good in 1792, having made an unsuccessful foray in 1787, and quickly attracted attention for his piano playing, at which he bested such local keyboard luminaries as Daniel Steibelt and Joseph Wölffl to become the rage of the music-mad Austrian capital. His appeal was in an almost untamed, passionate, novel quality in both his manner of performance and his personality, characteristics that first intrigued and then captivated those who heard him. Václav Tomásek, an important Czech composer who heard Beethoven play the premiere of the C major Concerto in Prague, wrote, "His grand style of playing had an extraordinary effect on me. I felt so shaken that for several days I could not bring myself to touch the piano."

Beethoven, largely self-taught as a pianist, did not follow in the model of sparkling technical perfection for which Mozart, who died only a few months before Beethoven's arrival, was well remembered in Vienna. He was vastly more impetuous and less precise at the keyboard, as former New York Times critic Harold Schonberg described him in his fascinating study of The Great Pianists: "[His playing] was overwhelming not so much because Beethoven was a great virtuoso (which he probably wasn't), but because he had an ocean-like surge and depth that made all other playing sound like the trickle of a rivulet.... No piano was safe with Beethoven. There is plenty of evidence that Beethoven was a most lively figure at the keyboard, just as he was on the podium.... Czerny, who hailed Beethoven's ‘ titanic execution,' apologizes for his messiness [i.e., snapping strings and breaking hammers] by saying that he demanded too much from the pianos then being made. Which is very true; and which is also a polite way of saying that Beethoven banged the hell out of the piano."

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Carl Czerny

Beethoven composed the first four of his five mature piano concertos for his own concerts. (Two juvenile essays in the genre are discounted in the numbering.) The Concerto No. 1 (1798) was actually the second to be written, but was given the lower number because the earlier B-flat Concerto (1795) was several months later in reaching publication. Both scores appeared in 1801, the delay apparently caused by Beethoven's desire to keep them from his rivals and reserve them for his personal use. Beethoven's C major Concerto sprang from the rich Viennese musical tradition of Haydn and Mozart, with which he was intimately acquainted: he had taken some composition lessons with Haydn soon after his arrival, and he had profound affection for and knowledge of Mozart's work. At a performance of Mozart's C minor Piano Concerto (K. 491), he whispered to his companion, John Cramer, "Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to do anything like that!"

The opening movement of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto is indebted to Mozart for its handling of the concerto-sonata form, for its technique of orchestration, and for the manner in which piano and orchestra are integrated. Beethoven added to these quintessential qualities of the Classical concerto a wider-ranging harmony, a more openly virtuosic role for the soloist, and a certain emotional weight characteristic of his large works. The second movement is a richly colored song with an important part for the solo clarinet. The rondo-finale is written in an infectious manner reminiscent of Haydn, brimming with high spirits and good humor.
The concerto is performed by Murray Perahia, piano, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti.
1. Allegro con brio part 1
1. Allegro con brio part 2
2. Largo part 1
2. Largo part 2
3. Rondo allegro scherzando

Resources
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven), Wikipedia
Score:

Additional performances
Pedja Muzijevic, piano, with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Uros Lajovic, Conductor
1. Allegro con brio part 1
1. Allegro con brio part 2
2. Largo
3. Rondo allegro scherzando
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Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

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Beethoven in 1803

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800. The first performance occurred in April, 1803.
Program Notes:Kennedy Center
Beethoven composed this concerto in 1800 and fussed over it intermittently right up to the time of its first performance, which he conducted from the keyboard in a concert of his own works at the Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1803.

Apart from various other considerations, the C minor Concerto marks a pivotal time in the maturation of Beethoven's creative powers. He spoke of the work himself as one in which he reached “a new and higher level,” and indeed, by the time he introduced this concerto he was making his initial sketches for his Third Symphony (the Eroica ) and beginning work on Fidelio , the only opera he completed (in no fewer than three somewhat different versions, and originally titled Leonore ). While his two earlier concertos were very much in the Mozart mold, he paid Mozart a higher compliment in this one, which, while apparently patterned after Mozart's concerto in the same key (No. 24, K. 491), makes few gestures toward Mozart's distinctive style; this work is thoroughly and assertively in a style that could not be mistaken for that of anyone but Beethoven himself.

During the three years that passed between the nominal completion of this work and its premiere, Beethoven returned to the score from time to time to make modifications and emendations, and he was still revising the solo part on the very day of the premiere. The concert in which the Third Concerto was introduced was the sort of near-chaotic affair duplicated in various other Beethoven premieres in the same hall, the Theater an der Wien (still in use, mainly for operettas and Singspiele ). On the same program were his First Symphony and the premieres of both the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. The only rehearsal for the entire program was held on the morning and afternoon of the same day as the concert itself. At five that morning Beethoven was copying out trombone parts for the oratorio; the rehearsal began at eight, and he kept his musicians going without a break until half-past two in the afternoon, when Prince Lichnowsky brought in some snacks and wine. The prince then requested another complete run-through of the oratorio, and the rehearsal finally ended at six, leaving only a brief respite before the concert had to begin. The event proved successful for Beethoven financially, if not entirely so in other respects. The Second Symphony was not well received, and was to be resisted and derided for some time. Beethoven performed as both soloist and conductor in the new concerto. His friend Ignaz von Seyfried reported that turning pages for him was easier said than done. "I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most on one page or the other a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all of the solo part from memory, since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to put it all down on paper. He gave me a secret glance whenever he was at the end of one of the invisible passages and my scarcely concealed anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him greatly. . . . He laughed heartily at the jovial supper we ate afterwards."

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Prince Carl Lichnowsky

Beethoven's pupil and biographer Ferdinand Ries, who took part in the preparations for that concert, played the solo part in the Third Concerto, with the composer conducting, the following year. He recalled later, “The pianoforte part of the C minor Concerto was never completely written out in the score; Beethoven wrote it down on separate sheets of paper for me.” When the score was published, at the end of 1804, Beethoven affixed a dedication to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was himself an accomplished pianist and composer as well as an admirer of Beethoven. It was not until 1809 that Beethoven wrote out cadenzas for this work, and for the other three piano concertos he had completed by then.

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Ferdinand Ries

The opening of this work is of such genuinely symphonic proportion that Donald Francis Tovey felt it was “something that dangerously resembled a mistake,” because “it rouses no expectations of the entry of a solo instrument.” Beethoven, Tovey continued,

Recognized and saved a dangerous situation in the nick of time: after the statement of the second subject, suddenly the orchestra seems to realize that it has no right to take the drama into its own hands, that its function is not drama but chorus-like narrative; and with a modulation in itself dramatic, the melody calmly turns round to C major and is followed by a series of cadence-phrases in the tonic minor . . . which brings this, the longest of all Beethoven's tuttis, to a massive formal close.

“Massive” is a good term, too, for the soloist's provocatively assertive entry at this point, following which the partnership between soloist and orchestra is an unprecedentedly rich one, though the primacy of the piano is never is question. The slow movement, in E major, breaks with precedent even more strikingly with its subtle yet deepfelt expressiveness, while the robust and vivacious final rondo, with its especially imaginative coda, triumphally validates Tovey's observation that this concerto is “one of the works in which we must clearly see the style of [Beethoven's] first period preparing to develop into that of his second.”
The concerto is performed by Krystian Zimerman, piano, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
1. Allegro con brio part 1
1. Allegro con brio part 2
2. Largo part 1
2. Largo part 2
3. Rondo allegro part 1
3. Rondo allegro part 2

Resources
Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven), Wikipedia
Score:International Music Score Library Project

Additional performances
Alfred Brendel, piano, and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, led by Claudio Abbado.
1. Allegro con brio part 1
2. Allegro con brio part 2
3. Largo continued from (2.)
4. Rondo allegro continued from (3.)
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Post by WhizKid »

My favorite is Concerto # 3 but each composition is a reflection of Beethoven's genuine musical genius
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Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58

Post by Barry Barnitz »

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Beethoven in 1806

The Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1805 -1806.
Program Notes:Kennedy Center
Beethoven's fascination with the concerto format stretches back to his teenage years in Bonn. At 13 he made his first effort to compose one for piano (of which only a piano score survives). It's intriguing to realize that simultaneously Mozart was beginning to produce his famous series of piano concertos- a much-needed source of income to support the freelance career he had taken up in Vienna. After Beethoven moved there in 1792, he would put a personal stamp on that legacy when he performed Mozart's D Minor Concerto (K. 466) in public, providing his own cadenzas.

The genre of the concerto was especially attractive during the years before deafness forced Beethoven to abandon his career as piano soloist: It allowed him to combine the dual roles of composer and performer in a big public setting (and it was as a keyboard virtuoso that the ambitious young musician first made his name in the big city). In fact, the Fourth Piano Concerto marked the occasion of Beethoven's final appearance as a solo performer with orchestra. It was part of the program for the legendary concert of December 22, 1808, which also happened to include the premieres of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies as well as yet other pieces- with the unusually scored Choral Fantasy for piano, orchestra, and chorus (again featuring Beethoven as soloist) bringing this marathon event to its conclusion. Perhaps the sheer aesthetic overload (not to mention the underrehearsed orchestra and the theater's heating breakdown on a bleak, cold Vienna night) numbed the impression made by the Concerto. In any case, it fell into neglect until Mendelssohn posthumously made a case for this extraordinary work.

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Felix Mendelssohn

In his first three mature piano concertos, Beethoven had already fully absorbed what he could learn from the Mozartean models. The Concerto No. 4 ventures into very different territory. We often see the label "heroic style" applied across the board to works from the period to which the Fourth Piano Concerto belongs- the period inaugurated by the "Eroica" Symphony (hence the term). And these works do tend to convey an aggressive energy and ambitious scope. What gives Beethoven's heroism its lasting grip on us, as Maynard Solomon puts it in his eloquent biography (a must-read for anyone interested in the composer), is the "fusion of comic and tragic visions of life" that it ultimately expresses. But the "heroic" Beethoven is manifested in an extraordinary variety of guises. The Fourth Piano Concerto yokes his signature dramatic energy with a serene, lyrical outlook that makes this work particularly beguiling.

The Concerto's opening gesture presents in microcosm what is to follow- not just in the standard sense of highlighting essential thematic content that will be developed (which it does) but as a strategy for the entire work. The Fourth Concerto is, in a sense, about the concerto idea itself: Instead of following the expected formulas, it takes a step back to reflect on what this interplay between soloist and orchestra means. How can its theatrical possibilities be tapped in a way that makes it more than a vehicle for virtuosity? Beethoven's first decision is stunningly simple- have the piano protagonist start off with a monologue of its own- yet a brilliant, unprecedented breakthrough that casts classical convention aside (well, almost unprecedented- Mozart came close to the idea in his Concerto K. 271, where the piano grabs the spotlight moments into the opening).

What's even more striking is that the soloist doesn't begin with a big, dramatic declamation but is instead subdued and lyrical- even quasi-spontaneous. Yet embedded within its statement are energetic dramatic ideas. So these first solo bars suggest the tug between a lyrical quality and a more dynamic one: The Concerto revolves around this tension. As this generous movement unfolds- it outlasts the other two combined- there will be plenty of time to play up the drama inherent in this music. In fact, the main theme is powered by a very familiar Beethoven signature: it's the restless rhythmic pattern we know from the Fifth Symphony (which he was already working on) and other pieces of this period. Within the Fifth Symphony alone, the amount of mileage Beethoven gets from that rhythmic motto is astonishing enough; yet here he takes it in a completely different direction.

Notice too the magical point of contact where the orchestra (also subdued) takes over from the piano, with a luminous change of key (from the home territory of G to B Major). When this moment comes back in the recapitulation, Beethoven at last weaves the piano in with the orchestra to gorgeous effect. A second, march-like theme introduces a note of melancholy which mixes unpredictably with the sunny confidence of the opening music. Beethoven spins all of this material out in passages that alternate between reverie and sudden jolts into active awareness.

The brief Largo presents one of those examples in Beethoven where an extraneous image imposed by others has become indelibly associated with the music (another example is the "Moonlight" Sonata). Romantics later in the century mused that Beethoven was imagining a narrative based on the ancient myth of Orpheus- specifically, his taming of the Furies in the Underworld as he seeks out his beloved Eurydice. (In this connection, it's interesting to note that some claim Beethoven had ancient tragedy in mind while composing the Fifth Symphony.) What Beethoven does emphasize is the remarkable structure of the movement. It builds as an exchange between the orchestra, reduced to strings- which now start things off with a grim recitative that foreshadows the final of the Ninth- and the soloist. In his Norton Lectures on the concerto idea, Joseph Kerman notes that a musical fact- that each "side" plays utterly different music- becomes a psychological phenomenon: We hear this not as incongruity but as a 'series of responses.' And along the way, the orchestra begins to assuage its sternness, while the piano meanwhile erupts in a dazzling fountain of trills before the eloquently voiced final passage.

The finale presents the most exuberantly extroverted music of the Concerto, again turning on a prominent rhythmic element- this time with a brisk, rapidfire kick. But Beethoven reminds us of the fundamental contrast between lyricism and action from the first movement with a sweetly pensive second theme spanning both ends of the keyboard. He ratchets up the energy level even further with a gear shift to Presto for a dashing curtain. Suddenly, after the splendid rethinking of concerto interplay that has prevailed, virtuosity re-emerges in a fresh light.
The concerto is performed by Hélène Grimaud, piano, with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach .
1.Playlist (some overlapping occurs)
1. Allegro moderato
2. Andante con moto
3. Rondo vivace)

Resources
Piano Concerto No. 4(Beethoven), Wikipedia
Score:International Music Score Library Project

Additional performances
Krystian Zimerman, piano, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Leonard Bernstein.
1. Allegro moderato part 1
1. Allegro moderato part 2
2. Andante con moto continued from (2.)
4. Rondo vivace continued from (3.)
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Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73

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Beethoven

The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, Op. 73, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1809.
Progrm notes:Kennedy Center

The year 1809 was a difficult one for Vienna and for Beethoven. In May, Napoleon invaded the city with enough firepower to send the residents scurrying and Beethoven into the basement of his brother's house. The bombardment was close enough that he covered his sensitive ears with pillows to protect them from the concussion of the blasts. On July 29th, he wrote to the publisher Breitkopf und Härtel, "We have passed through a great deal of misery. I tell you that since May 4th, I have brought into the world little that is connected; only here and there a fragment. The whole course of events has affected me body and soul... What a disturbing, wild life around me; nothing but drums, cannons, men, misery of all sorts." He bellowed his frustration at a French officer he chanced to meet: "If I were a general and knew as much about strategy as I do about counterpoint, I'd give you fellows something to think about." Austria's finances were in shambles, and the annual stipend Beethoven had been promised by several noblemen who supported his work was considerably reduced in value, placing him in a precarious pecuniary predicament. As a sturdy tree can root in flinty soil, however, a great musical work grew from these unpromising circumstances – by the end of that year, 1809, Beethoven had completed his "Emperor" Concerto.
When conditions finally allowed the Concerto to be performed in Leipzig some two years later, it was hailed by the press as "without doubt one of the most original, imaginative, most effective but also one of the most difficult of all concertos." (The soloist was Friedrich Schneider, a prominent organist and pianist in Leipzig who was enlisted by the local publisher Breitkopf und Härtel to bring this Concerto by the firm's most prominent composer to performance.) The Viennese premiere on February 12, 1812, with Beethoven's pupil Carl Czerny at the keyboard, fared considerably less well. It was given as part of a benefit party sponsored by the augustly titled "Society of Noble Ladies for Charity for Fostering the Good and Useful." Beethoven's Concerto was only one unit in a passing parade of sopranos, tenors and pianists who dispensed a stream of the most fashionable musical bon-bons for the delectation of the Noble Ladies. Beethoven's majestic work was out of place among these trifles, and a reviewer for one periodical sniffed, "Beethoven, full of proud self-confidence, refused to write for the crowd. He can be understood and appreciated only by the connoisseurs, and one cannot reckon on their being in the majority at such affairs." It was not the musical bill that really robbed the attention of the audience from the Concerto, however. It was the re-creation, through living tableaux – in costume and in detail – of paintings by Raphael, Poussin and Troyes. The Ladies loved that. It was encored. Beethoven left.
The sobriquet "Emperor" attached itself to the E-flat Concerto very early, though it was not of Beethoven's doing. If anything, he would have objected to the name. "Emperor" equaled "Napoleon" for Beethoven, as for most Europeans of the time, and anyone familiar with the story of the "Eroica" Symphony will remember how that particular ruler had tumbled from the great composer's esteem. "This man will trample the rights of men underfoot and become a greater tyrant than any other," he rumbled to his young friend and pupil Ferdinand Ries. The Concerto's name may have been tacked on by an early publisher or pianist because of the grand character of the work; or it may have originated with the purported exclamation during the premiere by a French officer at one particularly noble passage, "C'est l'Empereur!" The most likely explanation, however, and one ignored with a unanimity rare among musical scholars, is given by Anton Schindler, long-time friend and early biographer of Beethoven. The Viennese premiere, it seems, took place at a celebration of the Emperor's birthday. Since the party sponsored by the Noble Ladies was part of the festivities ordered by the French conquerors, what could be more natural than to call this new Concerto introduced at that gathering the "Emperor"?
The "Emperor" is the largest in scale of all Beethoven's concertos. It is also the last one, though he did considerable work on a sixth piano concerto in 1815 but never completed it. The Fifth Concerto is written in a virtuosic style that looks forward to the grand pianism of Liszt in its full chordal textures and wide dynamic range. Such prescience of piano technique is remarkable when it is realized that the modern, steel-frame concert grand was not perfected until 1825, and in this work, written sixteen years earlier, Beethoven envisioned possibilities offered only by this later, improved instrument.
The Concerto opens with broad chords for orchestra answered by piano before the main theme is announced by the violins. The following orchestral tutti embraces a rich variety of secondary themes leading to a repeat of all the material by the piano accompanied by the orchestra. A development ensues with "the fury of a hail-storm," wrote the eminent English music scholar Sir Donald Tovey. Following a recapitulation of the themes and the sounding of a proper chord on which to launch a cadenza, Beethoven wrote into the piano part, "Do not play a cadenza, but begin immediately what follows." At this point, he supplied a tiny, written-out solo passage that begins the coda. This being the first of his concertos that Beethoven himself would not play, he wanted to have more control over the finished product, and so he prescribed exactly what the soloist was to do. With this novel device, he initiated the practice of completely writing out all solo passages that was to become the standard method used by most later composers in their concertos.
The second movement begins with a chorale for strings. Sir George Grove dubbed this movement a sequence of "quasi-variations," with the piano providing a coruscating filigree above the orchestral accompaniment. This Adagio leads directly into the finale, a vast rondo with sonata elements. The bounding ascent of the main theme is heard first from the soloist and then from the orchestra. Developmental episodes separate the returns of the theme. The closing pages include the magical sound of drum-taps accompanying the shimmering piano chords and scales, and a final brief romp to the finish.
Claudio Arrau, piano
1. Allegro part 1
1. Allegro part 2
2. Adagio continued from (2.)
2. Adagio un poco mosso
3. Rondo continued from (4.)

Resources
Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven), Wikipedia
Score:International Music Score Library Project

Additional performances
Krystian Zimerman, piano, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
1. Allegro part 1
1. Allegro part 2
1. Allegro part 3
2. Adagio un poco mosso
3. Rondo part 1
3. Rondo part 2

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, with the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit
1. Allegro part 1
1. Allegro part 2
2. Adagio un poco mosso
3. Rondo
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gkaplan
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Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:34 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by gkaplan »

I would rank my favorite Beethoven piano concertos in the following order: 3, 1, 4, 5, 2.
Gordon
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