Although before the formal premiere Beethoven had made known the Concerto No. 1 in C major in Vienna before small audiences formed by his noble friends, the truth is that its world premiere took place in Prague in 1798.
The Concerto No 1 is not the first composed by Beethoven. It was preceded by Concerto No 2 and a sketch of another in E flat, which has nothing to do with the Emperor Concerto. Composed in 1797 – Beethoven has been established in Vienna for four years –, the first official performance of the concerto before the Viennese audience occurred only in April 1800, on a Friday afternoon, with a young Ludwig thirty-year-old as soloist and conductor. The program included the First Symphony (on premiere) and the Septimino, as well as a Mozart symphony and selections from the oratorio The Creation, by Haydn.
The Concerto is in three parts, in the common classic style:
–Allegro con brío
–Largo
–Allegro scherzando
First movement - Allegro con brio
The first movement begins with a long introduction of the orchestra presenting two themes, agile and spirited the first, which at minute 1:30 gives way to a second one, a more lyrical theme.
The cadenza, that is, that section destined for the soloist to show his virtuosity or abilities for improvisation, seems to be, in this case, what Beethoven himself wrote.
The rendition is by Krystian Zimerman, at the piano and conducting.
Second movement - Largo
Largo is the tempo indication that Beethoven pointed out for the second movement. Largo literally means "broad" and indicates that the piece should be played very slowly.
The tempo indications in music, whose purpose is to indicate the speed at which the piece should be played, began to be used extensively from the seventeenth century on, a period during which a significant number of great composers were coming from regions that in the 19th century are going to constitute the Italian nation, for that reason the words used for such purpose are written in the language of that nation, Italian.
Obviously, the same reasons apply to the origin of dynamic indications: forte, piano; or for the so-called "agogics": accelerando, diminuendo (alterations of, precisely, the tempo) and, in general, for all kinds of indications in the score.
But as a single word can have hundreds of meanings and resonances for different individuals, already before 1800 it had become necessary the invention of a mechanical device with whose help the speed at which a piece should be executed could be established unambiguously. After several attempts with varying degrees of success or failure, the metronome saw its definitive concretion – until today – in the device patented by J. Nepomuk Mälzel in 1815. And the first composer in incorporating metronomic indications to his scores was the very same Ludwig van Beethoven.
As romantic as it could be, the maestro was not able to resist the temptation to try this new conquest of human ingenuity. The man had reached the metronome, and Ludwig was not indifferent to it.
However, the device did not replace by far the tempo indications written by the composer in his own handwriting. (Nor was that his goal). The metronome is limited to indicating a number of quarter notes or eighths per minute, mathematically. Words, on the other hand, add to the indicated speed an atmosphere, a certain spirit or even a state of mind with which the work must be approached. That conjunction of speed and atmosphere is what we believe constitutes the tempo of the work.
The rendition is by the Italian maestro Pietro Papagna accompanied by the Citta di Fondi Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ertug Korkmaz.
By that time, the Viennese had already warned that the maestro Beethoven was much more than a professional and prominent pianist. However, it is not easy to say that his contemporaries saw in Beethoven the genius known to us. To the Viennese people of 1800, the music of Beethoven may have even seemed a bit snobby: his music was too unique. "The spectators come to my concerts to mourn like the readers of a saga," he said. Neither were absent less encouraging reviews. In 1796, during a tour of several countries, a Prague music critic wrote: "it struck our ears but not our hearts". In Berlin, during the same tour, even though the monarch Frederick William II of Prussia entertained him with a box full of gleaming "louises", nor did he find the ideal audience there. "I played the best I could," he declared bitterly years later, "and I expected great success. But it did not sound like a round of applause! The audience had moved to mourn, soaking their handkerchiefs to show their gratitude. I remained completely indifferent, I understood that it was a corny auditorium, but not fond of art ".
And on the occasion of the April 1800 concert, the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung magazine said that the concert had been "the most interesting one heard in a long time" but at the same time observed that "the musicians of the orchestra did not bother to pay much attention to the soloist". The soloist was, of course, Beethoven.
Rondo - Allegro scherzando
The third movement of the concerto is a rondo, a musical form based on the repetition of the main theme that alternates with other secondary ones. Its tempo indication is Allegro scherzando, something like fast but playful. The solo piano introduces the first theme, then the orchestra will follow.
The pianist ends his task without fuss, at 8:49, when at the end of a sweet section he must play a D and then a C, pianissimo. Precisely this last one failed once Martha Argerich, the key did not make a sound and she just looked at the conductor with an expression on her face that was telling "ok, so be it". After that, whether or not it sounds, the orchestra intervenes with a short and placid phrase, to then attack with bravery the closing of the work.
The rendition is by Vladimir Ashkenazy accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.
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