Allegro moderato
Andante con moto [attacca]
Rondo: Vivace
Lang Lang
ESCHENBACH, LANG LANG AND TAYLOR Sunday, August 10 * 7pm CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Mozart: Rondo in D Major Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 ("The Age of Anxiety")
First performed by Beethoven on December 22, 1808, in Vienna's Theater auf der Wieden. The score calls for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, solo piano and strings.
Beethoven completed five concertos for piano and orchestra in Vienna between 1795 and 1809 to display his phenomenal talents as a pianist, although he apparently never performed the final work in public. He had established a reputation in the city first as a virtuoso pianist and only later as a composer. Following the tragic signs of his increasing deafness, first noticed in 1798 and secretly confessed in the Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802, Beethoven concentrated more intensely on composition. Rather than reflecting the somber realities of his physical condition, the products of this creative period are remarkable for their hopeful, heroic nature: the Symphonies No. 3 (Eroica) and No. 5, the Appassionata piano sonata, the opera Fidelio and the Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5.
Composition of the Concerto No. 4 began in 1805 (five years after its predecessor) and concluded the following summer. The first private performance with Beethoven as soloist took place in March 1807 at the home of his patron, Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz. The following year, the concerto received its official public premiere at the Theater auf der Wieden on December 22, 1808. That all-Beethoven program lasted for four hours and included Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, the Choral Fantasy and improvisations by the composer. Although Beethoven had promised to dedicate the Concerto No. 4 to Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein, the published score appeared with an inscription to his longtime friend, Archduke Rudolph.
Mozart, who had established the three-movement design of the Classical concerto, strongly influenced Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra. The first three concertos display a particular indebtedness, but in the final two works Beethoven manipulated the form to his own expressive requirements. Both pieces broke from standard practice by introducing the solo piano at the beginning of the first movement instead of after an orchestral segment.
Concerto No. 4 shares an expressive lyricism with other compositions from Beethoven's heroic period. An unaccompanied piano introduces the Allegro moderato's first theme. There is some resemblance between the repeated eighth-notes of this idea and the characteristic rhythmic motive at the beginning of the Symphony No. 5. The orchestra restates this same phrase in another key, then completes the theme in the tonic. A constantly modulating melody built of an arpeggiated chord provides thematic contrast. The piano reenters with transitional music and then assumes the first theme. Orchestra and piano mutually present a dolce theme. The modulating second theme returns as a dialogue between the orchestra and the soloist. Development explores the first-theme rhythm and second-theme arpeggios. An orchestral crescendo prepares the dramatic return of the original theme in the piano. This dolce idea begins in major before changing to minor. A piano cadenza leads to the climactic coda.
Two opposing ideas (a forceful, staccato unison in the orchestra and the quiet, cantabile simplicity of the piano chorale) appear in the Andante con moto. These alternate as if struggling for control of the music or the listener. In the end, an understated piano theme emerges but not without a final hint of the orchestral theme whispered by the cellos and basses. The music proceeds without interruption into the final movement.
The Vivace rondo opens with a refrain presented pianissimo by the strings. The piano plays its ornamented version, followed by several varied statements. Beethoven provided an elegant contrasting theme in the piano. After a flourish, the solo instrument brings back the first theme in its original key. A lengthy development follows. The piano recalls the expressive second theme. An unaccompanied section for piano is followed by a varied return of the first theme and further development of the second theme. The piano cadenza builds to a brilliant close.
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