Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)

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Piano Concerto in G major
No. 4
by
Archduke Rudolph
Performed22 December 1808, Vienna
Movements
  • 3 (Allegro moderato
  • Andante con moto
  • Rondo. Vivace.)
Scoring
  • Piano
  • orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, was composed in 1805–1806. Beethoven was the soloist in the public premiere as part of the concert on 22 December 1808 at Vienna's Theater an der Wien.

Orchestration

It is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of a flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings.

Premiere and reception

It was premiered in March 1807 at a private concert of the home of

Archduke Rudolph
.

A review in the May 1809 edition of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung states that "[this concerto] is the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever".[2] However, after its first performance, the piece was neglected until 1836, when it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn.[3]

Today, the work is frequently recorded, and it is a favorite of concert audiences. It is also considered by many to be one of the pinnacles of the piano concerto repertoire.[4][5][6]

Structure

Title page, first edition
1st movement
2nd and 3rd movements
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I. Allegro moderato

The first movement opens with the solo piano, playing simple chords in the tonic key before coming to rest on a dominant chord. The orchestra then enters with the same theme, in B major, the major mediant key, which is in a chromatic mediant relationship to the tonic. Thus enters the first theme.[7]

The orchestra states the main theme in B major, dropping through the circle of fifths to a cadence in the tonic, G major. The theme is then stated again, this time in stretto between upper and lower voices. A very strong cadence in the tonic, withering away within one bar, introduces a transitional, modulatory theme with restless triplet accompaniment, also containing hints of stretto. The music moves to the minor mediant key, B minor, while its dynamic is reduced to pianissimo, at which point material from the opening theme returns. Through a rising bass line and sequential harmonies, the music regains the tonic key (on a dominant pedal) with a new theme derived from bars 3, 4, and 5. The final cadence is delayed for several bars before the material from the opening bar resurfaces as the movement's closing theme, accompanied by a tonic pedal over forte dominant chords.

Felix Salzer says the following about this opening, "[It is] one of the most fascinating substitutions of the entire literature...The whole passage appears as a most imaginative prolongation of interruption, the post-interruption phrase starting with a B-Major chord boldly substituting for the tonic. In addition, this post-interruption phrase introduces a very interesting melodic parallelism in form of an augmentation of the end of the pre-interruption phrase one step higher."[8]

The piano's entrance resembles an Eingang, an improvisatory passage from Mozart's day that would have occurred after the orchestra's last unresolved dominant chord, but before the piano played the main theme. Beethoven captures this improvisatory style by accelerating the rhythm in the piano part, from eighth notes, to triplets, to sixteenth notes, and finally in a scale that rushes downward in sixteenth-note sextuplets. A long preparation is then made before a tonic cadence duly arrives, and the orchestra once again takes up the main theme.

II. Andante con moto

The second movement has been associated with the imagery of

Furies (represented, respectively, by the piano and unison strings) at the gates to Hades, a suggestion of Beethoven's 1859 biographer Adolf Bernhard Marx.[9] The movement's quiet E minor ending leads without pause into the C major
chords that open the finale.

III. Rondo (Vivace)

In contrast to the preceding movements, the third movement, in traditional rondo form, is simpler, characterized by a very rhythmic theme. The main theme begins, introduced quietly by the orchestra, in the subdominant key of C major before correcting itself to reach a cadence with the piano in the tonic key of G major.

Cadenzas

Manuel M. Ponce
, etc.

Reception

As of 2021, it was the second-most performed piano concerto at Carnegie Hall, with 192 performances.[10]

References

Notes

Citations

  1. ^ Steinberg, Michael. The Symphony: A Listeners Guide. pp. 19–24. Oxford University Press, 1995.
  2. ^ Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 17 May 1809, p. 523
  3. ^ "Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 4 in G". Classic FM. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  4. ISBN 0802829309
    .
  5. ISBN 0679728058
    .
  6. ^ "San Francisco Symphony – Beethoven: Concerto No. 4 in G major for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 58". San Francisco Symphony. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  7. ^ Timothy Judd (16 November 2020). "Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto: An Intimate and Sublime Dialogue". The Listeners' Club. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  8. ISBN 978-0-486-22275-2
  9. JSTOR 746511
    .
  10. ^ "The Five Most-Often Performed Piano Concertos at Carnegie Hall". www.carnegiehall.org. Retrieved 27 December 2021.

External links

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