In all of Beethoven's fertile creative life, no time was more productive than the years 1805 and 1806. In 1804 he had reached the climax of his early career with the completion of the Eroica Symphony, his third, which was a turning-point in the history of music. During the next two years. Beethoven, in his mid-thirties, proved he was not lust another young composer of great promise but the mature possessor of musical powers without precedent and beyond compare. The Fourth Piano concerto was probably completed sometime around the middle of 1806. and Beethoven was the soloist in its first performance, in March, 1807, In one of a pair of private concerts devoted entirely to his music. at the palace of his generous friend, Prince Lobkowitz. In August, 1808. It was published with a dedication to Archduke Rudolph, the Emperor's youngest son, who had been studying the piano and composition with him since 1804. Beethoven was eager to give a public performance of the Concerto but he had difficulty In getting a hall on a good date. A single official of the Imperial Court was both director of theaters and supervisor of charities, and he finally gave Beethoven free use of the Theater-an-der-Wien on December 22, 1808. in exchange for his services at three benefit concerts. The Fourth had difficulty making its way into the world. It was overshadowed by the Third, which is easier to play, and the Fifth, which is more imposing. Finally It was Mendelssohn who established a place for it in the concert repertoire, in his second season as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus (Draper Hall) Orchestra. On November 3, 1838, Robert Schumann wrote, "Today Mendelssohn played the G-Major Concerto of Beethoven with a power and polish that transported us all. I took a pleasure in it such as I have never before enjoyed, and I sat in my seat without moving a muscle or even breathing." The Concerto is enormously difficult to play, but it differs greatly from the usual virtuoso concerto of this time, for the purpose of all its difficulties is to express the composer's complex Ideas, not to show off the pianist. The orchestra does not just fill musical time and space around the soloist, but participates fully and equally in the event, and in fact the entire work is a dialogue of orchestra and piano. The first movement, Allegro moderato, does not open with the conventional orchestral exposition of the principal ideas, which are then ordinarily restated, weighted somewhat differently, by the soloist. The piano starts instead, with an ambiguous phrase, almost as though In mid-sentence. The orchestra answers, and only then does it begin the main theme. Phrases and musical sentences, In piano and orchestra, are often telescoped, run together as though In a rush to get on to a new idea before quite finishing with the old one. The ideas are warm, personal, witty, heroic, severe, as the conversation takes many turns. There are references to Mozart and the past, suggestions of Brahms and the future, and (in the third movement) even discussions of a subject heard in the Ninth Symphony that Beethoven would write more than fifteen years later. In the second movement, Andante con moto , the persistently forceful statements of the orchestra's strings are answered quietly by the piano until the orchestra is calmed. The entire movement is like a recitative and arioso, dramatic but not especially operatic, and it runs without pause Into the taut Rondo finale, Vivace. The orchestration calls for flute, two oboes. two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings. It is worth noting that after completing the score, Beethoven made some changes in the piano part to reflect the extended range available on the newest instruments. [Back] [Composer] [Fragments] [Portraits] [Download] [Quiz] [Magnum Opus] [Vote] [Links] [About] [Mail]
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