Beethoven was a newcomer to Vienna when, in 1795, he accomplished the Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Main. It’s daring music which was designed to showcase the younger composer’s abilities as one of many preeminent virtuoso pianists of the time. Though the C main Concerto was the primary to be revealed (in 1801), its composition was preceded by the piece we now know as Piano Concerto No. 2. Whereas the Second Concerto is charming and intimate chamber music, the First rises to the decidedly grander scale of the live performance corridor, with the addition of horns, trumpets, and timpani.
The affect of Mozart, who died solely 4 years earlier, is clear. But, there are already hints of the dynamic power and thrilling drama of Beethoven’s later works. That is music crammed with daring surprises within the type of sudden jarring sforzandos and adventurous excursions into sudden keys. Early listeners who have been accustomed to the conventions of stylish classicism have been bowled over. Following a 1798 efficiency in Prague, the pianist and composer, Václav Tomášek, wrote,
I admired his highly effective, sensible enjoying, however his frequent daring adjustments from one melody to a different, placing apart the natural, gradual growth of concepts, didn’t escape me. Evils of this nature steadily weaken his biggest compositions, these which sprang from a too exuberant conception. The listener is usually rudely woke up…The singular and authentic gave the impression to be his chief intention…
The primary motion’s introduction begins quietly with a spirited assertion of the principal motif (“lengthy, quick, quick, quick”). All the motion’s themes spring from this rhythmic motif and embellish it in several methods. Consisting of a single word (“C”) which rises an octave, it’s the easiest of musical constructing blocks. The primary theme takes the type of a march, with echoes of the fanfare and drum-infused army music of the French Revolution. The second theme delivers a jarring shock. It begins within the “fallacious” key of E-flat main and, by a collection of interjections by the winds, works its solution to the “right” key of G main. With its first entrance, the solo piano emerges as a remarkably unassuming protagonist. It’s content material to get lost freely in a brand new course till the orchestra interrupts with a boisterous restatement of the principal motif. Within the recording under, pianist Paul Lewis performs an adventurous and expansive alternate cadenza, written by Beethoven years after the Concerto’s preliminary performances. The ultimate bars of the event part result in the recapitulation with a way of quiet, tense anticipation. The cadenza closes the motion with an analogous dramatic second. This time, it comes within the type of a sneaky musical joke.
Transferring to the distant key of A-flat main, the second motion (Largo) is a young cantilena (a lyrical, singing melody). The serene, shimmering first measures open the door to a drama which encompasses haunting thriller and lament. Occasional “quick, quick, quick, lengthy” rhythms recommend an inversion of the primary motion’s rhythmic seed. Because the motion unfolds, the clarinet emerges as an more and more distinguished voice. Within the closing bars, the clarinet and piano converse in a soulful duet.
The ultimate motion is a joyful, frolicking seven-part rondo. With the marking, Allegro scherzando, Beethoven reinforces the unabashed humor of this music. Based on the composer’s buddy, Franz Wegeler, the ultimate motion was accomplished “solely on the afternoon two days earlier than the efficiency…4 copyists sat within the hallway working from the manuscript sheets he handed over to them one after the other.” Following a collection of far-flung and typically unique adventures, the coda part drifts off right into a second of repose. Within the piano, we hear the distant open fifth of searching horns, adopted by a nostalgic assertion within the oboe. A closing musical joke brings the Concerto to a rollicking conclusion.
I. Allegro con brio:
II. Largo:
III. Rondo. Allegro scherzando:
