CONLON CONDUCTS ALL BEETHOVEN Friday, July 18 * 8pm CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Coriolan Overture Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
First performed most probably on December 18, 1795, at the Burgtheater in Vienna with Beethoven as soloist. The score calls for one flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani, piano and strings.
Solo improvisations and self-composed concertos were the bread-and-butter of Classic and Romantic virtuosos. Impromptu creations required only mild care-taking, since rival performers occasionally stole flashy, novel effects and passed them off as their own. On the other hand, virtuosos jealously safeguarded their own concertos. Allowing a manuscript copy to circulate or ushering a work into print essentially terminated the "unique" place the concerto took in the composer/performer's active repertoire. Those situations required a virtuoso to create replacement works.
As a business-savvy rising keyboard star, Beethoven understood this reality of the virtuoso profession. He composed two piano concertos during his first years in Vienna and restricted these works to his own performances. Beethoven clearly struggled with his first mature piano concerto. Initial sketches for a Concerto in B-flat Major date from 1793, soon after his arrival in Vienna. This score underwent two extensive revisions in 1794-95 and 1798, one before the premiere March 29, 1795, and the other after several performances of the concerto in Vienna, Prague and Berlin.
Beethoven began another piano concerto in 1795, this one in C major. With confidence gained from the initial concerto exercise, work proceeded without major interruption, and the premiere took place on December 18. The composer revised his score in 1800. When the first two concertos were published in 1801, Beethoven reversed their order: the C major became No. 1, and the B-flat major No. 2. Six years had elapsed from the premieres of Beethoven's two concertos until their publication. By that time, work on a third concerto in C minor was well under way.
Correspondence with Breitkopf & Härtel (April 22, 1801) reveals the nervous composer attempting spin control with the press. "In this connection I merely point out that Hoffmeister is publishing one of my first concertos (No. 2 in B-flat, Op. 19), which, of course, is not one of my best compositions. Mollo is also publishing a concerto which was written later (No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15), it is true, but which also is not one of my best compositions of that type. Let this serve merely as a hint to your Musikalische Zeitung about reviewing these works . . . Advise your reviewers to be more circumspect and intelligent, particularly in regard to the productions of younger composers." Clearly, the effectiveness of the first two concertos had passed, and that, at least in the case of concertos, newer meant better in Beethoven's mind.
Beethoven dedicated the Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, to Countess Anna Luise Barbara d'Erba-Odescalchi (née von Keglevics), his piano student and honoree of several early works. Already at this early stage in his compositional career, Beethoven interest in motivic expansion is apparent. The initial theme of the Allegro con brio contains an octave leap and rocketing scale pattern. C major typically prompts military associations, but Beethoven delays the expected loud outburst until the second set of phrases. (Mozart postponed the martial element similarly in his Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467.) Several transitional ideas instill energy that dissipates with the tender E-flat-major violin melody. Beethoven allows vigorous closing material to out-proportion the more stable main themes. The piano finally enters, presenting a new, unaccompanied theme. Orchestral interjections harken back to the opening motives, around which the solo instrument weaves brilliant countermelodies. Observing Mozartian convention, the piano and orchestra progress through previously heard themes. Development fuses the octave-leap motive with grandiose piano figuration. The orchestra restates the two main themes, each time echoed by the piano. Beethoven left three cadenzas for this movement.
The Largo contains spacious lyricism and a palpitating accompaniment reminiscent of the famous Andante (used in the film Elvira Madigan) from Mozart's Concerto No. 21. This sprawling composition is uncharacteristically long for Beethoven. However, his ability to sustain a tranquil atmosphere throughout much of the movement demonstrates the depth of Mozart's influence. The concerto concludes with a zesty rondo movement. Its refrain theme has earlier origins in a piano trio in E-flat. Franz Wegeler claimed that Beethoven completed the rondo in haste on the Sunday before the premiere. This memorable tune tends to overshadow several well-shaped themes that occur between refrain statements. There are two cadenza passages--one partly supported by orchestra, and the other unaccompanied--that segue into the refrain.
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