Piano Concerto No. 5

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The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto", was his last 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 in December 1810, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider. In 1812, Carl Czerny, his student, gave the Vienna debut of this work.

In October 2007, this concerto was voted as listeners' #1 favourite in the ABC Classic FM Classic 100 Concerto poll.^[1]

The epithet of "Emperor" for this concerto, used in English-speaking countries, was not Beethoven's own, but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto.^[2] Its duration is approximately forty minutes.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo piano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B-flat (Clarinet I playing Clarinet in A in movement 2), two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani in E-flat and B-flat, and strings.

Movements

The "Emperor" is divided into a standard three movements:

As with Beethoven's other final concerti, this work has a relatively long first movement. (At twenty-five minutes, the Violin Concerto has the longest; Piano Concerto Nos. 4 and 5 each have opening movements about twenty minutes long.)

I. Allegro

The main theme of the first movement.

The piece begins with three full orchestra chords, each followed by a short cadenza, improvisatory in nature but written out in the score. These short cadenzas recur intermittently throughout the piece.

As music's Classical era gave way to its Romantic era, composers began experimenting with the manner in which one or more solo instruments introduced music. Beethoven had already explored such possibilities in his Piano Concerto No. 4, but the monumental piano introduction in Piano Concerto No. 5 – it lasts for nearly two minutes – foreshadowed future concerti such as Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto or Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B-flat minor.

The first movement is deceptively complex. Despite its use of simple chords, including a second theme constructed almost entirely out of tonic and dominant notes and chords, it is full of complex thematic transformations. The complexity is intensified once the piano enters with the first theme, as the expository material is repeated with far more complex variations, virtuoso figurations, and complex modified chords. The second theme enters in the surprising key of B minor before moving to C-flat major and at last the expected key of B-flat major several bars later.

Aside from the opening cadenzas, the movement follows Beethoven's trademark three-theme sonata structure for a concerto. The orchestral exposition is a typical two-theme sonata exposition, but the "second exposition" with the piano has a triumphant virtuoso third theme at the end that belongs solely to the solo instrument. Beethoven does this in many of his concerti. The coda at the end of the movement is quite long, and, again typical of Beethoven, uses the open-ended first theme and gives it closure to create a satisfying conclusion.

II. Adagio un poco mosso

The second movement in B major is, in standard contrast to the first, calm and reflective. It moves into the third movement without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B-flat, the dominant note to the tonic key E-flat.

III. Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

The main theme of the third movement.

The final movement of the concerto is in seven-part rondo form (ABACABA), a typical concerto finale form. The piano begins the movement by playing its main theme, then followed by the full orchestra. 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 cadenza. 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.

Prominent recordings

In March 1927 Ignaz Friedman recorded the Emperor Concerto with the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra and Henry Wood but this recording no longer exists. Also in the 1920's William Backhaus recorded the 4th and 5th Concertos very successfully. In the early 1930s Arthur Schnabel recorded all 5 Beethoven concerti with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra. Arthur Rubinstein recorded it three times. Wilhelm Kempff recorded it with Paul van Kempen in 1953 and with Ferdinand Leitner. Claudio Arrau recorded it in 1984 with Sir Colin Davis. 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.

References

1. ^ Classic 100 Concerto, ABC Classic FM, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 31 October 2007
2. ^ Answers.com

External links

• Piano Concerto No. 5: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project.
• Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto Analysis and description of Beethoven's Fifth "Emperor" Piano Concerto
• BBC Discovering Music (browse for .ram file containing analysis of this work)
• Piano Concerto No. 5 sheet music available at Musopen.com