Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last completed piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The first performance took place on 13 January 1811 at the Palace of Prince Joseph Lobkowitz in Vienna, with Archduke Rudolf as the soloist,[1] followed by a public concert on 28 November 1811 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig under conductor Johann Philipp Christian Schulz, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider.[2][3] On 12 February 1812, Carl Czerny, another student of Beethoven's, gave the Vienna debut of this work.
| Piano Concerto in E-flat major | |
|---|---|
| No. 5 (Emperor) | |
| by Ludwig van Beethoven | |
 Beethoven in 1815, portrayed by Joseph Willibrord Mähler | |
| Catalogue | Op. 73 |
| Composed | 1809–11 |
| Dedication | Archduke Rudolph |
| Performed | 28 November 1811: Gewandhaus, Leipzig |
| Movements | |
The epithet of Emperor for this concerto was not Beethoven's own but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto.[4] Its duration is approximately forty minutes.
Instrumentation
The concerto is scored for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭ (clarinet I playing in A in movement 2), two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani in E♭ and B♭, and strings. In the second movement, 2nd flute, 2nd clarinet, trumpets, and timpani are tacet.
Movements
The concerto is divided into three movements:
I. Allegro
The first movement begins with the solo piano unfurling a series of virtuosic pronouncements punctuated by emphatic loud chords from the full orchestra. The vigorous, incessantly propulsive main theme follows, undergoing complex thematic transformation, with a secondary theme of tonic and dominant notes and chords. When the piano enters with the first theme, the expository material is repeated with variations, virtuoso figurations, and modified harmonies. The second theme enters in the unusual key of B minor before moving to B major and at last to the expected key of B♭ major several bars later.
Following the opening flourish, the movement follows Beethoven's three-theme sonata structure for a concerto. The orchestral exposition is a two-theme sonata exposition, but the second exposition with the piano introduces a triumphant, virtuosic third theme that belongs solely to the solo instrument, a trademark of Beethoven's concertos. The coda elaborates upon the open-ended first theme, building in intensity before finishing in a final climactic arrival at the tonic E♭ major.
II. Adagio un poco mosso
The second movement in B major forms a quiet nocturne for the solo piano, muted strings, and wind instruments that converse with the solo piano. The movement briefly changes to D major, a very remote key from the concerto's E♭ major. The third movement begins without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B♭, the dominant of the tonic key E♭. The end of the second movement was written to build directly into the third.
III. Rondo: Allegro
The final movement of the concerto is a seven-part rondo form (ABACABA). The solo piano introduces the main theme before the full orchestra affirms the soloist's statement. The rondo's B-section begins with piano scales, before the orchestra again responds. The C-section is much longer, presenting the theme from the A-section in three different keys before the piano performs a passage of arpeggios. Rather than finishing with a strong entrance from the orchestra, however, the trill ending the cadenza dies away until the introductory theme reappears, played first by the piano and then the orchestra. In the last section, the theme undergoes variation before the concerto ends with a short cadenza and robust orchestral response.
Notable recordings
- During the acoustic era, in September 1912 Frank La Forge recorded the adagio movement with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra; the recording was issued as Victor 55030-A.[5]
- Frederic Lamond made the first complete recording of the Emperor Concerto in 1922, with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Eugene Goossens.[6]
- In January 1927 Wilhelm Backhaus recorded the Emperor Concerto with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Landon Ronald. Backhaus would make stereo recordings of all five concertos with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt and Vienna Philharmonic in the late 1950s.
- In March 1927 Ignaz Friedman recorded the Emperor Concerto with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood, but this recording no longer exists.
- In the early 1930s Artur Schnabel recorded all five Beethoven concertos under Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra.
- Edwin Fischer recorded it with Karl Böhm in 1939 and Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1951.
- Josef Hofmann recorded it with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Lange on 12 May 1940.
- Arthur Rubinstein recorded it three times, with Josef Krips, Erich Leinsdorf, and Daniel Barenboim.
- Walter Gieseking and Artur Rother made a stereophonic tape recording in 1944 or 1945 for German radio. It was one of the very earliest high-fidelity magnetic tape recordings, as well as one of the earliest stereo recordings, and was one of about 300 such recordings made during the war. However, only three are known to survive. During the quiet passages, anti-aircraft weapons can be heard firing.
- Vladimir Horowitz recorded it in a 1952 live performance at Carnegie Hall with Fritz Reiner and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra.[7]
- Wilhelm Kempff recorded it with Paul van Kempen in 1953 and with Ferdinand Leitner in 1961.
- Rudolf Serkin recorded it four times: in 1941 with Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic; in 1953 with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra; in 1962 with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, and in 1981 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa.
- Bernstein recorded a live performance of the concerto in September 1989, shortly before his death, with Krystian Zimerman and the Vienna Philharmonic. The performance was filmed and released on DVD.
- Leon Fleisher recorded all the Beethoven piano concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra from 1959 until 1961.
- Daniel Barenboim recorded all five piano concertos and the Choral Fantasia with Otto Klemperer and the New Philharmonia Orchestra in 1968. In 2012 he again recorded all five concertos with himself as both the soloist and the conductor.
- Vladimir Ashkenazy recorded all the Beethoven piano concertos three times: in 1971–1972 with Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in 1983 with Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic, and in 1986–1987 with himself conducting the Cleveland Orchestra.
- Claudio Arrau recorded it four times: with Alceo Galliera in 1958, Bernard Haitink in 1964 and twice with Sir Colin Davis, first with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and later with the Staatskapelle Dresden.
- Glenn Gould recorded this concerto with Leopold Stokowski (the only recording the two ever made together) using somewhat non-traditional phrasings and tempi, as was typical of Gould's interpretations. Gould also recorded it with Karel Ančerl.
- Maurizio Pollini recorded the five piano concertos twice for Deutsche Grammophon. First with Karl Böhm and Eugen Jochum (in the first two concertos) and the Vienna Philharmonic and later with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic.
- Alfred Brendel recorded all Beethoven's piano concertos at least three times over his career.
- Friedrich Gulda recorded all Beethoven's piano concertos with Horst Stein and the Vienna Philharmonic between 1971 and 1973.
- Paul Lewis recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.
- Alicia de Larrocha recorded it twice, first in 1978 with Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and then recorded all Beethoven's piano concertos with Riccardo Chailly and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1983-84)
- Murray Perahia recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with conductor Bernard Haitink, 1988.
- Richard Goode recorded the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by Iván Fischer in 2005.[8][9]
- Hélène Grimaud recorded a live performance in December, 2006 with Wladimir Jurowski and the Staatskapelle Dresden.
- In 2012, the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos in the album "the Beethoven Journey", with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra[10]
Notes and references
Notes
- The original autograph (page 74r) has Adagio un poco moto ("Adagio with a little motion"), not mosso.
References
- "Sketchleaf". www.sothebys.com.
- Michael Steinberg: The Concerto: A Listener's Guide. Retrieved 4 August 2014
- San Francisco Symphony. Retrieved 4 August 2014 Archived 11 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Stevenson, Joseph. Johann Baptist Cramer at AllMusic. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- Audio on YouTube, Frank La Forge, 1912
- Audio on YouTube, Frederic Lamond, 1922
- Audio on YouTube, Vladimir Horowitz, 1952
- McCarthy, James (12 July 2012). "Beethoven's Complete Piano Concertos". www.gramophone.co.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
- http://archive.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2009/03/13/getting_back_to_beethoven/
- The album on spotify
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven). |
- Piano Concerto No. 5: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Gutmann, Peter (2017). "Beethoven: Piano Concerto # 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 ('Emperor')". Classical Notes.
- Original autograph, 1809, Berlin State Library
- Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto Analysis and description of Beethoven's Fifth Emperor Piano Concerto
- BBC Discovering Music – analysis (RealAudio, 29 minutes)
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