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Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, nine concertos, and a variety of other orchestral music, ranging from overtures and incidental music for theatrical productions to other miscellaneous "occasional" works, written for a particular occasion.
But it is the five piano concertos he wrote between 1795 and 1809 that have been beloved by pianists and audiences alike for over 200 years. Beethoven composed several concertos during his teens – the piano score of a complete concerto in E flat dating from 1784 is the only one to have survived.
- Beethoven’s Five (or So) Piano Concertos
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5
- Recommended Recording
Beethoven’s five piano concertos are all in three movements. Here their similarities end. The wonderful thing about Beethoven – OK, one of many wonderful things – is that he never repeats himself. The earliest of Beethoven’s piano concertos that we generally hear, No. 2, was first drafted in the late 1780s and the last completed in 1809-10, by whic...
The C major concerto, the official No. 1, was a case in point. Beethoven premiered it in 1795 in his first public concert in Vienna, having written the finale only two days earlier. His friend Franz Wegeler recalled him racing against the clock to finish it, handing over the sheets of manuscript page by fresh page to four copyists waiting outside. ...
Of No. 2 in B flat major, Beethoven wrote self-deprecatingly to his publisher: “This concerto I only value at 10 ducats… I do not give it out as one of my best.” Yet if he hadn’t written anymore, we would still love him for this work. Genial, warm, sometimes ridiculously funny – try those off-beat loping rhythms in the finale – the B flat piano con...
If there’s a key in Beethoven associated with high drama, it is C minor: he used it for the Symphony No. 5, the ‘Pathétique’ Sonata, much later his last piano sonata, Op. 111, and the Piano Concerto No. 3. This was written as the 19th century was taking wing; its first performance, given by the composer himself, was on 5 April 1803. Only six months...
In the Piano Concerto No. 4in G major, Beethoven inhabits new worlds that are both brave and breathtaking. It is brave, for a start, to begin a concerto with the soloist playing alone, very quietly. The piano’s initial phrase – a soft G major chord that pulses, then expands towards a questioning cadence – poses a challenge to the orchestra, which r...
The last concerto, subtitled the ‘Emperor’, is in Beethoven’s old favorite key of E flat major, and it lives up to its nickname in terms of grandeur, poise, and scale of conception. This is the only one of Beethoven’s piano concertos that the composer did not perform himself: by the time of its premiere in January 1811, his hearing loss was making ...
Krystian Zimerman and Sir Simon Rattle’s landmark recording of Beethoven’s Complete Piano Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra was a major highlight of the celebrations to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Their outstanding performances, streamed on DG Stage from LSO St Luke’s and recorded live by Deutsche Grammophon in Decem...
- Jessica Duchen
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Beethoven composed works in all the main genres of classical music, including symphonies, concertos, string quartets, piano sonatas and opera. His compositions range from solo works to those requiring a large orchestra and chorus. Title page of Beethoven's symphonies from the Gesamtausgabe.
Mar 11, 2013 · 11 March 2013, 15:59 | Updated: 4 April 2016, 12:38. Beethoven completed five Piano Concertos in under 20 years, but from the age of 38 he would never finish one again as his deafness stopped him from performing, writes John Suchet. Five completed Piano Concertos, spanning a period from when Beethoven was around 19 or 20 to when he was just 38.
Concerto. 3. Klavierkonzert; Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19; Piano Concerto no. 1 in C major, Op. 15; Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major, Op. 58; Piano Concerto no. 5 in E-flat major 'Emperor', Op. 73; Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
Violin Concerto. The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1806. Its first performance by Franz Clement was unsuccessful and for some decades the work languished in obscurity, until revived in 1844 by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society ...
- 1806
- Violin concerto
- Three
- D major
