BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
We’re crazy for Beethoven.
And we’re pumped that this month the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra will host a series of concerts across Hobart and Launceston to celebrate the composer’s piano concertos.
Conducted by Marko Letonja and performed by Britain’s Stephen Hough – named by The Economist as one of only ’20 Living Polymaths’ (that is, a super smart expert on heaps of stuff) and a world class pianist – Tassie audiences are set for an extraordinary fix of the great composer’s writing for piano and orchestra until August 29.
We brief you now on everything you need to know before attending the concerts.
1. LIES. The Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15 wasn’t Beethoven’s first at all. It was his third – though he wasn’t quite ready for anyone to hear his earlier works. He’d attempted two concertos before his ‘number one’ was published including the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major Op. 19 years earlier.
2. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT… At the premieres of his first, second, and fourth piano concertos, Beethoven himself was sitting at the piano.
3. SOME PIANISTS AREN’T SATISFIED. Canadian pianist Glenn Gould and German pianist Wilhelm Kempff both wrote their own cadenzas to replace Beethoven’s.
4. HEADS UP FOR MOZART. Written in Beethoven’s ‘First Period’, the first concerto was well influenced by Mozart. Its structure and thematic development is similar to those found in Mozart’s piano concertos. Beethoven’s second was similarly approached.
5. DEDICATED TO THE COUNTESS/PUPIL. The first concerto was dedicated to Beethoven’s pupil – who happened to be Anna Louise Barbara Keglevich, the Countess of Bratislava. He also dedicated his Piano Sonata No. 4 in E-flat major Op. 7 to the private student.
6. NOT SO CRASH HOT. When Beethoven sent his second concerto off to the publisher, he said it was “not one of the best”. But what did Beethoven know? Everyone else loved it and he met with great success during his years in Vienna.
7. OOPS. Beethoven didn’t have time to write out all of the piano part for his Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37. Oh well, he premiered it anyway in 1803 in a concert exclusively featuring his own works including ‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’ and two symphonies. Without the completed transcription, he played much of the concerto from memory.
8. DESPITE THIS, HE HAD A PAGE TURNER. Beethoven requested Ignaz Seyfried turn the pages, though the notation was impossible to read. Seyfried relied on the occasional nudge from the musician to do the job.
9. IT’S ONLY MINOR. Conceptual changes can be heard in the third concerto and it’s been praised for exuding more emotional than his previous Mozartian concertos. Here, Beethoven used a minor key for the first time in any of his concertos.
10. LIGHT MY FIRE. Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 in G major Op. 58 was completed in 1806 and had its premiere two years later, during which two boys were standing near the composer at the piano. It’s said that Beethoven rose from his stool and knocked the flames into the ground. But it’s ok, ‘cause he’s Beethoven.
11. PATIENCE, PLEASE. The fourth concerto would have had an earlier debut, had Beethoven been able to find a suitable pianist for the part.
12. HEARING PROBLEMS. Though he usually premiered his own concertos, Beethoven never played his Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major Op. 73 ‘Emperor’ for audiences because of his deafness. Church organist Friedrich Schnieder played at the premiere in Leipzig, 1811 and Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny in Vienna 1812.
13. GOTCHA. Beethoven wrote an extra grace note into the opening of the Emperor’s second movement, giving a false start. Virtuoso Alfred Brendel was criticised by the Times for incorrectly playing an extra note here during a London concert, but Brendel wrote in to defend himself from the claim.
14. FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT. A cadenza starts the Emperor’s first movement before the orchestra plays its exposition – oh, the drama. This compositional feature became popular during the 19th Century.
15. THERE COULD HAVE BEEN ANOTHER. In 1815, Beethoven started composing a sixth piano concerto – but he cast it aside and it was sadly not to be.
See the Beethoven Celebration with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and associated ensembles. For concert dates and bookings go to the website here or check our events page.
Image supplied. Portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Mahler.
