I. Allegro
II. Adagio un poco mosso
III. Rondo: allegro ma non tanto
There are noble pages, also moments of tenderness, in the first
movement; there is a majestic, compelling sweep. In the second movement
there is simplicity, serenity of contemplation, Buddhistic music of
singular detachment, found only in certain measures of Beethoven and
Handel; but the _finale_ with the endless repetitions of a Kangaroo
theme leads one to long for the end.
* * *
Beethoven, having made some sketches in 1808, wrote this concerto in
1809 at Vienna. The town was occupied by the French from May 12 to
October 14.
It is said that the first public performance of which there is any
record was at Leipsic on November 28, 1811. It is also stated that this
performance was late in 1810. The pianist was Friedrich Schneider. The
_Allgemeine Musik Zeitung_ described the concerto as “without doubt one
of the most original, imaginative, effective, but most difficult of all
existing concertos.” Schneider, it seems, played “with soul” as well as
force, and the orchestra accompanied remarkably, for “it respected and
admired composer, composition, and pianist.”
The first performance with which Beethoven was concerned was at Vienna
on February 12, 1812, when Karl Czerny (1791-1857) was the pianist. The
occasion was a singular sort of entertainment. Theodor Körner, who had
been a looker-on in Vienna only for a short time, wrote home on February
15: “Wednesday there took place for the benefit of the Charitable
Society of Noble Ladies a concert and a representation of three pictures
after Raphael, Poussin, and Troyes, as Goethe describes them in his
_Elective Affinities_. A new concerto by Beethoven for the pianoforte
did not succeed”; but Castelli’s _Thalia_ gave as the reason of this
failure the unwillingness of Beethoven, “full of proud self-confidence,”
to write for the crowd. “He can be understood and appreciated only by
the connoisseurs, and one cannot reckon on their being in a majority at
such an affair.” Thayer moralizes on this statement. “The trills of Miss
Sessi and Mr. Siboni and Mayseder’s Variations on the March from _Aline_
were appropriate to the occasion and the audience.”
The Vienna correspondent of the _Allgemeine Musik Zeitung_ wrote that
the extravagant length of the concerto diminished the total effect which
the “noble production of the mind” would otherwise have made. As for
Czerny, “he played with much accuracy and fluency, and showed that he
has it in his power to conquer the greatest difficulties.” But the
correspondent wished that there had been greater purity in his
performance, a finer contour.
The tableaux pleased mightily, and each one was repeated.
The first movement, _allegro_, in E flat, 4-4, opens with a strong chord
for full orchestra, which is followed by a _cadenza_ for the solo
instrument.
The first theme is given out by the strings and afterward taken up by
the clarinets. The second theme soon follows, first in E flat minor,
softly and staccato by the strings, then _legato_ and in E flat major by
the horns. It was usual at that time for the pianist to extemporize his
_cadenza_, but Beethoven inserted his own with the remark, “_non si fa,
una cadenza ma s’attacca subito il seguente_” (that is to say, “Do not
insert a _cadenza_, but attack the following immediately”); and he then
went so far as to accompany with the orchestra the latter portion of his
_cadenza_.
The second movement, _adagio un poco moto_, in B major, 2-2, is in the
form of “quasi-variations,” developed chiefly from the theme given at
the beginning by muted strings. This movement goes, with a suggestion
hinted by the pianoforte of the coming first theme of the _rondo_, into
the _rondo_, the _finale_, _allegro_, in E flat, 6-8. Both the themes
are announced by the pianoforte and developed elaborately. The end of
the _coda_ is distinguished by a descending long series of pianoforte
chords which steadily diminish in force, while the kettledrums keep
marking the rhythm of the opening theme.