The whole course of events has in my case affected both body and soul … What a destructive, disorderly life I see and hear around me: nothing but drums, cannons, and human misery in every form. After an introductory orchestral chord, the piano enters with a cadenza. Cadenzas, unaccompanied virtuoso passages filled with scales and trills created from fragments of thematic material, usually appear at the close of a movement.
By opening the concerto with a cadenza full of musical foreshadowing, Beethoven telegraphs the themes and ideas of the opening movement to the listener.
The seamlessness of the opening movement gives listeners a sense of inevitability, as if the music could unfold in no other way. We can picture Beethoven, surrounded by aural and emotional chaos, escaping from the turmoil of his surroundings into an ethereal sound world.
All too soon Beethoven brings us back to earth as the whole orchestra drops down a half-step, from B to B-flat; it sustains that note while the piano storms into the Rondo with renewed vigor.
Symphony No. Posthumous discovery That changed when Robert Schumann called on Ferdinand Schubert during the winter of About the music Schubert was clearly emulating Beethoven's enormous scale. Explore Concerts. Plan Your Visit.
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Although barely remembered today, Lamond proclaimed, "Beethoven was my god — the creed of my life — my one and all" and was hailed as a lifelong Beethoven specialist. Alan Vicat notes, more superficially: "His similarity of appearance to Beethoven seems to have helped endear him to German audiences. Henderson credited him with "a certain downrightness, not to say ruggedness of style, coupled to the sincerity of his performance, [that] have always placed him in the front rank of Beethoven interpreters.
His "Appassionata," for example, sounds "lumpy" to modern ears but his slight agogic tempo variations and dynamics underscore the musical logic without breaching the essential momentum. And the fleet propulsion of the first movement of his "Moonlight" is far more pensive than somnolent, as most modern conceptions tend to be. Frank La Forge, an American who studied under Leschetizky, had cut a wonderfully elegant Emperor Adagio for Victor in with an uncredited orchestra; it can be heard at the Library of Congress's National Jukebox.
Presumably to accommodate a single side, five bars are cut from the orchestral introduction and the tempo is nearly half again as fast as normal, imparting a lovely and unaccustomed sense of nimbleness and seemingly in the spirit of Beethoven's full tempo marking of Adagio un poco mosso or moto — slightly quicker than slow. Lamond's conductor was Eugene Goossens, whose reputation as objective and polished is amply belied by his fleet and dynamic acoustical recordings of Petroushka, Scheherazade and several overtures.
Yet the result is hardly as revolutionary as their reputations and separate recordings might suggest. Initially we must discount the sonic issues inherent in any acoustical recording — compressed dynamics lest loud portions distort and softer ones sink below the noise floor , constricted overtones resulting in the highest keyboard notes barely registering and blurring articulation so as to deprive rapid keyboard figures of much of their grace and peculiar balances in part from resonances of the horn and pickup mechanism, which here overstate the violins and flutes.
That said, rather surprisingly the outwardly dramatic opening movement is largely straightforward, swiftly paced from the outset as Lamond barely grazes the whole-note trills in his three opening runs and seems utterly nonplussed by occasional sour notes in his rapid figurations. Unlike his sonata recordings, here all ten sides required at least two takes, with third and fourth takes spilling over into a second session.
Yet Lamond subtly flexes the pacing during his solos, extends a few rests and slows to anticipate orchestral entrances. For his part, Goossens ensures interest with swift tempos and emphatic accenting. The often staid Adagio is uncommonly expressive, with lovingly shaped phrases, exquisitely smooth trills and natural rhythmic blending of sixteenth and triplet eighth note figures, while the rondo assumes an unusual degree of added character from tangible tension between the steady orchestra and some jagged, emphatic solo phrasing.
Overall, the Lamond Emperor tends to present the cantabile side of Beethoven's own famed keyboard style and only hints at the extraordinary power he also was reputed to unleash. A fascinating comparison is afforded by this broadcast recording alas, only of the first movement, but preserved in remarkably fine fidelity.
Also born in Glasgow, d'Albert was revered by Liszt as his foremost pupil, and came to be considered the foremost virtuoso of his time and a Beethoven specialist. Bruno Walter was awed with his Emperor : "I shall never forget the titanic force in his rendition. As phrase after phrase is hurled and delivered with the intent to stun, d'Albert creates a panorama of the concerto as having an outer cage, presented by the orchestra, which is home to beast, an elemental force.
This shaping of the piano's role in relation to the orchestra alludes to the wildness surrounding the legend of Beethoven's persona and his own performance practice. Although well beyond his glory days and out of practice having long since turned to composing , amid the wrong notes and blurred runs d'Albert's hugely committed and impulsive playing is phenomenally thrilling with its overwhelmingly persuasive vitality, providing an essential complement to Lamond by conjuring the other, more forceful, side of Beethoven's own reputed performing style.
In D'Albert recorded a solo transcription of the complete Beethoven Fourth Concerto , including his own cadenzas, on four Hupfeld piano rolls that, despite suspicion of post-hoc alteration and enhancement, are heady and fascinating in their own right.
D'Albert's Emperor and Fourth both can be heard on the forte-piano-pianissimo. Yet, while Schindler's biography of Beethoven is filled with first-person insights, he has since been roundly discredited by scholars for exaggerating his own role and outright invention of claimed facts, and so perhaps his pedagogy is suspect as well.
Remarkably, we have two recordings of her Emperor just prior to her downfall. In a Vienna Philharmonic set Urania Karl Bohm leads a conventional, if rather stilted, accompaniment that perhaps inhibits her, with the result emerging as more labored than profound.
Far more attuned is the Berlin Philharmonic under Abendroth , whose unfettered sense of autonomy provides an ideal setting for perhaps the most provocative, visceral and utterly spellbinding complete Emperor of all, from other-worldly clout as piano and orchestra trade explosive power-chords in the first movement to the percussiveness of thundering solo turns in the finale.
While we will never know how Beethoven "heard" his Emperor , it seems hard to imagine a reading that transcends the actual sounds of his time any more than this, much less one that unleashes such unabashed, full-blooded emotion. At this point, Beethoven's Erard piano it seems appropriate to consider one of the modern "historically-informed" Emperors , since their very purpose is to convey the work as it would have sounded on the instruments and using the techniques prevalent in the era of its creation.
Yet while this approach can work wonders, it intentionally ignores the credible theory that Beethoven conceived the Emperor and much of his later work for a future beyond his contemporaries' immediate grasp and for instruments to be developed beyond those of his time, as well as reports that his own extroverted playing far transcended the temperament of fellow pianists.
Even so, it does provide fascinating context. To judge from this first of a half-dozen or so original instrument recordings, the fortepiano here, a modern copy of an instrument from the Nannette Streicher workshop that Beethoven especially admired has a soft and velvety sonority, the modestly-sized ensemble of 44 players uses gut strings that balance nicely with the prominent doubled winds and brass, pitch is lowered, and the tempos are strict, adhering to those published by Czerny albeit decades after Beethoven's demise and thus subject to doubt.
The timings are close to Lamond's, but the polite, gentle and understated impact is vastly different, leaving most of the sense of conflict and drama to be inferred. While such reticence and modesty often can seem fully appropriate to induce listener input in an abstract art like music, I'm just not sure it tells the whole story here.
Yet it does serve to accentuate the gap between what Beethoven's audiences expected to hear using the resources of their time and the more far-reaching sounds for which the composer might have hoped. Of the hundred-plus other recordings of the Emperor , several to me, among those I've heard present a fascinating range of performing styles.
As is my wont, I like to focus on the early ones, from an era before impersonality set in. Wilhelm Backhaus, Royal Albert Hall Orchestra, Landon Ronald , Victor 78s, Biddulph CD They might not have had the pedigree of Lamond, d'Albert or Ney, but pianist Backhaus, conductor Ronald and his Royal Albert Hall orchestra all were veterans of the recording studio, each with over two decades of experience by the time they cut this second and first electrical Empero r.
Indeed, on July 15, Backhaus and Ronald then conducting Beecham's recently-formed New Symphony Orchestra had claimed the honor of the very first concerto ever recorded — the Grieg Piano Concerto , albeit radically pruned — the minute opening movement and the minute finale each was squeezed onto a single four-minute side and the lovely Adagio was omitted altogether. Rogers would cut the Grieg Adagio in June, ; the fall Victor catalog falsely claimed it as "the first record of a piano with orchestral accompaniment.
Beyond all else, it opened producers' eyes to the feasibility of concerto recordings and paved the way to the abundance ever since which we can enjoy today. With Backhaus we come to the next generation, who were directly exposed to 19th century mannerisms yet were young enough to have recorded while still in their prime. In fact Backhaus studied with d'Albert but seems to have absorbed little of his mentor's outsized individuality in favor of calm modesty.
As a result some critics came to consider him unduly dignified and even cold, yet it was that very naturalness and clarity that looked forward to the subtle demeanor prized in modern performance. Here Backhaus sticks closely to the score, presenting it with technical assurance and finesse — by no means dull, but never trying to second-guess what Beethoven actually wrote, adhering to sensible tempos and nicely balancing the heady and lyrical facets.
While not ranked among the greatest conductors of his time, Ronald surely was one of the most influential, serving as producer, accompanist and ultimately "house conductor" for the Gramophone Company HMV throughout most of the acoustical era and in that role leading competent pioneering recordings that immeasurably popularized many essential works.
Here he provides a rather solid and dutiful foil that complements Backhaus closely without adding inspiration of his own. Unfortunately, the orchestral opening of the Adagio oozes with gooey string portamenti sliding between notes and approximate intonation that spoils the mood for modern ears.
Even so, the overall result presents the score with integrity while pointing the way beyond the outsized personalities of the 19th century masters toward our present temperament.
Although by then he was in his 'seventies, his readings are strikingly similar, albeit slower, with a somewhat greater degree of tempo variation and especially limpid Adagios. The orchestral contributions are more authoritative and, of course, the fidelity is improved and, ultimately, in stereo. More than any other pianist of his time, Schnabel became identified with the interpretation of Beethoven's piano music, and not just because he pioneered concert cycles of all 32 sonatas and published a thoroughly-researched edition replete with his personal phrasing, fingering, tempos and what some consider excessive pedaling although recall Czerny's claim that Beethoven actually used the sustaining pedal far more than he notated in his scores.
Schnabel also produced the very first complete set of Beethoven sonata recordings, a venture deemed so risky at the time that it was undertaken as a limited edition of prepaid subscriptions.
Since then it has transcended its historical importance to serve as a landmark of triumphant artistry, and has remained constantly in print, from public 78 editions through LPs, CDs and now downloads. This sublime, discursive mood continues--certainly no one is in hurry for it to end—but it surely must, and the composer again pulls out a bit of trickery to bring on the finale. A soft, sustained B natural in the bassoons and horns descends to Bb, the strong note in music that psychologically takes us to Eb , the main key of the concerto, and where we must go for the last movement.
But the intent is mysterious: we hear a brand new theme in the piano, softly and deliberately stated, and then, without notice, we vigorously plunge straightway into the happy last movement with that new theme its subject. The shape is simple—only a diversion in the middle interrupts this dancing, active material. There, the pianist explores briefly a few fresh keys and contrasting ideas, but soon enough, the driving, dancing fun resumes, as the smashing conclusion seems to near.
One more trick, though: gradually the intensity appears to be waning, not growing, and a quiet duet between the soloist and the timpani portends a tranquil ending. Skip to main content.
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