THE
COMPOSER – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) – Vienna was under French
bombardment and eventual occupation during the spring and summer of
1809, the year in which Beethoven completed the bulk of the 5th Piano
Concerto. It was a decidedly unhappy time for the composer, with the
city emptied of friends and benefactors and with contact to the rest of
Europe nonexistent. The work was not premiered until November of 1811,
not surprisingly in Leipzig rather than Vienna. - See more at:
http://www.utahsymphony.org/insight/program-notes/512-beethoven-piano-concerto-no-5-emperor#sthash.2UIIQiQp.dpu
Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor")
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73
popularly known as the Emperor Concerto,and known for its grandeur, bold melodies, and heroic spirit, was his last piano concerto.
Written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna,
while Vienna was bombarded then occupied by the French.
while Vienna was bombarded then occupied by the French.
It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron, friend and pupil.
The first performance took place on 28 November 1811
at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider.
In 1812, Carl Czerny, another student of Beethoven's, gave the Vienna debut of this work.
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor")
THE
COMPOSER – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) – Vienna was under French
bombardment and eventual occupation during the spring and summer of
1809, the year in which Beethoven completed the bulk of the 5th Piano
Concerto. It was a decidedly unhappy time for the composer, with the
city emptied of friends and benefactors and with contact to the rest of
Europe nonexistent. The work was not premiered until November of 1811,
not surprisingly in Leipzig rather than Vienna. - See more at:
http://www.utahsymphony.org/insight/program-notes/512-beethoven-piano-concerto-no-5-emperor#sthash.2UIIQiQp.dpuf
It remains the best known and most frequently performed of Beethoven’s five piano concerti.***
*
Part I – Allegro –
constructed like a sonata it starts with a cadence of the piano, suggesting man’s heroism.
Only later, the orchestra presents the first theme.
1
Tai-Haim Samnon and Zubin Mehta
2
*
Part II – Adagio un poco mosso –
starts with a silent presentation by the string instruments of an expressive theme, of great openness,
and is followed by the piano with an extraordinarily melodic segment.
by Kurt Sanderling, Dieter Zechlin & Gewandhausorchester
Leipzig
*
Part III – Rondo-Allegro –
starts just before the end of the second part when the piano tunes the sounds of an arpeggio
which will generate the theme of the rondo, so powerfully rendered by the solo instrument.
by Arthur Rubinstein
dedicated to my dear friend Gillian Siemon-Netto
*
****
*
About the Piece:
Beethoven's last piano concerto dates from the beginning of May
1809, when, with Napoleon's army besieging Vienna, the Austrian Imperial
family and all of the court, including Beethoven’s pupil, friend, and
benefactor, Archduke Rudolph, fled the city. On May 11 the French
artillery, which commanded the heights of the surrounding countryside
and had penetrated outlying portions of the city proper, was activated.
Beethoven’s house stood perilously close to the line of fire.
Those who could not – or, like Beethoven, would not – leave sought
shelter underground. Beethoven found a temporary haven in the cellar of
his brother's house. Imagine the composer crouching there, with heaven
knows how many other frightened souls, trying to shield his already
irreparably damaged ears from the din of volley after volley.
Once the bombardment had ceased and the Austrian forces had
surrendered, the occupiers imposed a "residence tax" on the Viennese.
The composer, on whom a sufficiently heavy financial burden had been
placed by the departure of those who would guarantee his income,
described "a city filled with nothing but drums, cannon, marching men,
and misery of all sorts."
After the summer Beethoven was able to get away from the city and
return to composing, producing back-to-back masterpieces in the "heroic"
key of E-flat, the present Piano Concerto and the "Harp" Quartet, Op.
74. The grim experiences of the preceding months had not diminished his
creative powers.
With many of his circle back in Vienna at the beginning of 1810, by
which time a general armistice had been signed, life was returning to a
semblance of normalcy, the French uniforms and the sound of the French
language in the streets notwithstanding. There was, however, no
opportunity to present the new concerto. That had to wait until the
following year, and then not in Vienna but in Leipzig, with one
Friedrich Schneider as soloist. Beethoven, who had written his four
previous piano concertos for his own performance, was by now too deaf to
perform with orchestra.
For the occasion of the Vienna premiere in February 1812 the soloist was
Beethoven's prize pupil, Carl Czerny. Interestingly, the concerto
itself failed to make much of an impression, largely, it would seem,
because of the nature of the audience, the Society of Noble Ladies of
Charity, more receptive to the historic tableaux vivants that shared the
bill with Beethoven. The one press review that has survived, from the
periodical Thalia, took note of that fact: "Beethoven, full of
confidence in himself, never writes for the multitude. He demands
understanding and feeling, and because of the intenational difficulties,
he can receive these only at the hands of the connoisseurs, who are not
to be found at such functions." Nonetheless it was at that same concert
that one connoisseur, a French army officer, supposedly called this "an
emperor among concertos" (aloud, in the auditorium?). Although this is
often cited as a source of the nickname, verification is lacking. It is
more likely that "Emperor" was the brainchild of an early publisher.
Whatever its origin, the sobriquet seems apt for music of such imperious
grandeur.
Here, Beethoven is no longer writing up to his own lofty standards as a
performer, but for the supervirtuoso of the following generation –
personified by Czerny. Yet while the projection of power is among the
composer's aims, overt display is not, with nothing resembling a solo
cadenza in sight. With the "Emperor" Beethoven created a truly symphonic
concerto.
The first movement opens with a grandiose E-flat chord for the full
orchestra, interrupted by a series of equally commanding arpeggios for
the solo, suggesting an early cadenza. But instead Beethoven alternates
mighty pronouncements for the orchestra and the piano. The introduction
ended, the piano offers a broad, swaggering theme of which (and of the
ensuing, more subdued, second theme) Donald Francis Tovey, in his famous
analysis of the Concerto, wrote: "The orchestra is not only symphonic,
but is enabled by the very necessity of accompanying the solo lightly to
produce ethereal orchestral effects that are in quite a different
category from anything in the symphonies. On the other hand, the solo
part develops the technique of its instrument with a freedom and
brilliance for which Beethoven has no leisure in sonatas and chamber
music."
The second movement is one of the composer's sublime inspirations. The
muted strings play a theme of incomparable beauty and sad tenderness,
the piano responding in hushed, descending triplets, creating a subtle
tension until the theme is fully exposed. The nocturne-like character of
the movement is furthered by a delicate balance of soft woodwinds,
strings, and the solo, as the music mysteriously fades away. Then, over a
sustained horn note, the piano introduces, softly and still andante,
the theme of the rondo finale. Suddenly, dramatically, the piano lunges
into the final theme, now a grandly exuberant allegro.
- by Herbert Glass
THE
COMPOSER – LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) – Vienna was under French
bombardment and eventual occupation during the spring and summer of
1809, the year in which Beethoven completed the bulk of the 5th Piano
Concerto. It was a decidedly unhappy time for the composer, with the
city emptied of friends and benefactors and with contact to the rest of
Europe nonexistent. The work was not premiered until November of 1811,
not surprisingly in Leipzig rather than Vienna. - See more at:
http://www.utahsymphony.org/insight/program-notes/512-beethoven-piano-concerto-no-5-emperor#sthash.2UIIQiQp.dpuf
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