"Song of triumph for combat. Victory!" These are words that Beethoven wrote in the margins of some notes for the composition of the Piano Concerto No. 5, popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto." At the time the exhortation helped to sustain the idea that its grandiose character responded to the author's intention to greet an epic event, some military feat led by a relevant actor, for example, an emperor.
The occupied Vienna
Four years earlier, on November 1805, Napoleonic troops had occupied Vienna for the first time. Emperor Francis I of Austria, the same who did not hesitate on banning the performances of the Figaro by Mozart, must have left running out, but his exile was short-lived and he entered Vienna, triumphantly, in March 1806.
The peace, however, did not last long. In May 1809 Napoleon's armies were once again encamped on the outskirts of Vienna, and the emperor was forced to undertake a second escape. Peace returned, as always, but this time with humiliating conditions for the empire. To the pitiful armistice, Napoleon added a secret clause: the commitment of his marriage to Maria Luisa of Habsburg-Lorraine, daughter of the monarch.
A great work
We know that in 1809 Beethoven had long since removed from the Eroica Symphony the dedication to the revolutionary general who forgot the ideals of freedom and equality when he became emperor. About Francis I, we have said it all. So, to date, there is no character in sight that tradition or custom identifies with a war hero who would have inspired Beethoven to compose a great work. In fact, almost the opposite. Tradition and custom came to call "Emperor" the concerto No. 5 not for anything other than the great proportions and majesty of the work itself.
Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in E♭, Op 73
The concerto is dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, patron and brilliant Beethoven's pupil, one of the three members of the so-called "pact of the three princes" that assured the maestro an annual income, from precisely the year of the work's composition. It is the last that Beethoven composed for piano and, definitely, the one with the greatest virtuosity and character. Its premiere took place in the Gewandhaus Hall in Leipzig, on November 28, 1811.
Movements
Three movements make up the concerto: Allegro - Adagio un poco mosso - Rondo, allegro ma non tropo. As Beethoven used to do, the first movement is the longest. The second, intensely lyric, stands as one of the most beautiful pages written for piano and orchestra. It links with the third movement with no pause. The last movement cadenza, before the final tutti, ends with an untold ritardando, in which piano and timpani play twinned, till silence. Then, a furious scale by the piano will lead to a great and resounding orchestral ending.
Claudio Arrau, 85
On November 3, 1988, the London Symphony Orchestra scheduled a concert entirely dedicated to Beethoven that somehow also constituted a tribute to Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, who would participate in the first part of the evening with the performance of the Emperor Concerto. The Chilean maestro had turned 85, and at the beginning of the video we can see the director Sir Colin Davis holding Arrau by the arm while he comes to the piano. I beg you to excuse a couple of jumps and overexposures of the audio in minutes 3-6, but seeing and listening to Arrau, almost an old man, playing like a boy, makes this record a real jewel, despite the failures mentioned.
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