Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)

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Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, op.

Opus number

Opus, from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The Latin plural of opus, "opera", is used to refer to the genre of music drama ....
58, was composed in 1805–1806, although no autograph

Autograph

An autograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typesetting document or one transcribed by an amanuensis or a allography; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph....
copy survives.

Musical forces and movements
The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of a flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike other woodwind instruments, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air against an edge....
, two oboe

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy"....
s, two clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
s, two bassoon

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s, two horn

Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
s, two trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s, timpani

Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
, and strings

Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
. As is standard for classical concerto

Concerto

The term Concerto usually refers to a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra. The concerto, as understood in this modern way, arose in the Baroque period side by side with the concerto grosso, which contrasted a small group of instruments with the rest of the orchestra....
s, it is in three movements:

I. Allegro moderato (G major)

II.

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Encyclopedia

Ludwig van Beethoven

Opus number

Autograph

Musical forces and movements

The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of a flute

Flute

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy"....
s, two clarinet

Clarinet

Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s, two horn

Horn (instrument)

Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s, timpani

Timpani

Strings (music)

Concerto

I. Allegro moderato (G major)

II. Andante con moto (E minor)

III. Rondo (Vivace) (G major)

Premiere and reception

The Fourth Concerto was premiered by Beethoven himself at a private concert given in March, 1807 at the palace of his patron, Prince Lobkowitz. However, the public premiere was not until 22 December 1808 in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien

Theater an der Wien

The 'Theater an der Wien' is a theatre in Vienna....
. Beethoven again took the stage as soloist. This was part of a marathon concert which saw Beethoven's last appearance as a soloist with orchestra, as well as the premieres of the Choral Fantasy and the Fifth

Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, opus number 67 was written in 1804?08. This symphony is one of the most popular and well-known musical composition in all of European classical music, and one of the most often-played symphonies....
and Sixth symphonies

Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major , known as the Pastoral Symphony, was completed in 1808. One of Beethoven's few works of program music, the symphony was labeled at its first performance with the title "Recollections of Country Life"....
. Beethoven dedicated the concerto to his friend, student, and patron, the Archduke Rudolph.

A review in the May 1809 edition of Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung states that "[this concerto] is the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever." However, after its first performance, the piece was neglected until 1836, when it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a Germany composer, pianist, organist and conducting of the early Romantic music period....
. Today, the work is widely performed and recorded, considered one of the central works of the piano concerto literature.

Movements

I. Allegro moderato

The first movement opens with the solo piano, playing simple chord

Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
s in the tonic

Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
key

Key (music)

In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp....
before coming to rest on a dominant chord

Dominant (music)

In music, the dominant is the fifth degree of the Scale . For example, in the C major scale , the dominant is the note G; and the dominant chord uses the notes G, B, and D....
. After a poetic pause of two and a half beat

Beat (music)

A beat is the basic time unit within much Western music; for example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat. More technically, "the beat is the pulse of the mensural level", also known as the beat level, the meter level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit?"the denominator of the time signature,"...
s, the orchestra then enters in B major

B major

B major is a major scale based on B, with the pitches B , C? , D? , E , F? , G? , and A? . Its key signature has five sharps.B major's relative key is G-sharp minor, its parallel key is B minor, and its enharmonic equivalent is C-flat major....
, the major mediant

Mediant

In music, the mediant is the third degree of the diatonic Scale , being the "middle" note of the Tonic triad .In music theory, the mediant chord is symbolized by the Roman numeral III if it is major or iii if it is minor....
key, thus creating a tertiary

Tertiary

The Tertiary is a a term for a Geologic time scale#Terminology 65 million to 1.8 million years ago. The Tertiary covered the time span between the superseded Secondary period and an out-of-date definition of the Neogene#Controversy....
chord change. This becomes a motif

Leitmotif

A leitmotif is a recurring musical Theme , associated with a particular person, place, or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person....
of the opening movement.

The orchestra states the main theme in B major, dropping through the circle of fifths

Circle of fifths

In music theory, the circle of fifths shows the relationships among the twelve tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys....
to a cadence

Cadence

Cadence may refer to:In music:*Cadence , a melodic configuration or series of chords marking the end of a phrase, section, or piece of music...
in the tonic, G major. The theme is then stated again, this time in stretto

Stretto

Stretto , from the Italian stringere "to draw close" is a musical term for when a fugue motif is used to accompany itself. For example, if the alto voice begins the subject before the soprano voice has completed its prior entry of the subject, that is a stretto....
between upper and lower voices

In music, a register is the relative "height" or Range of a note, Musical set theory of Pitch es or pitch classes, melody, part, Musical instrument or group of instruments....
. A very strong cadence in the tonic, withering away within one bar, introduces a transitional, modulatory

Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature....
theme with restless triplet

Tuplet

In music a tuplet is any consecutive group of notes with an individual note value more or less than half as long as the next larger note value. This is usually indicated with a horizontal bracket with a number over a tuplet indicating how many notes of the same altered value are to be performed....
accompaniment, also containing hints of stretto. The music moves to the minor mediant

Mediant

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note , but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional ....
is reduced to pianissimo, at which point material from the opening theme returns. Through a rising bass line and sequential

Sequence (music)

A sequence in music occurs when a given melody or harmony passage is immediately repeated at a different pitch level. It is possible for melody or harmony to form a sequence without the other participating....
harmonies, the music regains the tonic key (on a dominant pedal

Pedal point

In tonality, a pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass , during which at least one foreign, i.e., consonance and dissonance harmony is sounded in the other register ....
) with a new theme derived from bars 3, 4, and 5. The final cadence is delayed for several bars before the material from the opening bar resurfaces as the movement's closing theme, accompanied by a tonic pedal over forte
Forte

Forte/Fort? may refer to:*Forte, from the French for "strength", , more frequently pronounced due to confusion with the Doublet below but regarded as incorrect by purists; an individual's strongest talent or greatest strength ...
dominant chords.

Felix Salzer, on page 195 of his book entitled Structural Hearing, says the following about this opening, "[It is] one of the most fascinating substitutions of the entire literature...The whole passage appears as a most imaginative prolongation of interruption, the post-interruption phrase starting with a B-Major chord boldly substituting for the tonic. In addition, this post-interruption phrase introduces a very interesting melodic parallelism in form of an augmentation of the end of the pre-interruption phrase one step higher." In other words, the piano plays the antecedent phrase of this period, and the orchestra answers with ^3 supported not as chordal third of the tonic G, but rather as a root of a #III (B major) chord which substitutes for the localized tonic G major chord. After a series of parallel tenths, (which contains the seeds of the secondary theme's parallel 10ths) ^3 is supported by tonic, which proceeds to ^2 supported by II6 and V7 before achieving the end of the period with a PAC. (WMH)

The piano's entrance resembles an Eingang, an improvisatory

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians....
passage from Mozart's day that would have occurred after the orchestra's last unresolved

Resolution (music)

Resolution in western tonal music theory is the "need" for a sounded note and/or chord to move from a Consonance and dissonance to a Consonance and dissonance ....
dominant chord, but before the piano played the main theme. Beethoven captures this improvisatory style by accelerating the rhythm in the piano part, from eighth

Eighth note

An eighth note or a quaver is a Music note played for one eighth the duration of a whole note, hence the name.Eighth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with one flag ....
s, to triplets, to sixteenth

Sixteenth note

In music, a sixteenth note or semiquaver is a note played for one sixteenth the duration of a whole note, hence the name. The semiquaver is half of a quaver which is an eighth note....
s, and finally in a scale

Musical scale

In music, a scale is a group of musical note collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony....
that rushes downward in sixteenth sextuplet

Tuplet

In music a tuplet is any consecutive group of notes with an individual note value more or less than half as long as the next larger note value. This is usually indicated with a horizontal bracket with a number over a tuplet indicating how many notes of the same altered value are to be performed....
s. A long preparation is then made before a tonic cadence duly arrives, and the orchestra once again takes up the main theme.

II. Andante con moto

The second movement is widely associated with the imagery of Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary figure, probably from Thracian origin, venerated by the Greeks and Thracians of the Classical age as a chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes....
taming the Furies (represented, respectively, by the piano and unison

UNISON

UNISON ? the Public Service Union is the second largest trade union in the United Kingdom, with over 1.3 million members.It was formed in 1993 when three previous public sector trade unions, the National Association of Local Government Officers , the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service Employees merg...
strings

Strings (music)

A string is the Vibrating string that is the source of vibration in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family....
) at the gates to Hades

Hades

Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive case , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"....
. It was long thought that Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Kingdom of Hungary composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century....
had been the first to suggest this association, although, as musicologist Owen Jander pointed out (Jander, 1985), it was probably first used by Adolph Bernard Marx in his 1859 biography of Beethoven. The movement's quiet E minor

E minor

E minor is a musical minor scale based on the note E, consisting of the pitches E , F? , G , A , B , C , and D . The harmonic minor scale contains a D? ....
ending leads without pause into the C major chords that open the finale

Finale

Finale may refer to:* The final movement of a sonata or a symphony, or a concerto or of another piece of non-vocal classical music which has several movements...
.

The solo cadenza at the end of the movement calls for a usage of the left pedal in a manner which is not literally possible on the modern piano; for discussion see Piano history and musical performance

Piano history and musical performance

The piano has evolved technologically more than any other musical instrument, giving rise to difficult issues involving the performance of music written for earlier pianos....
.

The theme of the introduction to César Franck

César Franck

C?sar Franck , a Belgian composer, organist and music teacher who lived in France, was one of the great figures in Romantic music in the second half of the 19th century....
's Symphonic Variations
Symphonic Variations (Franck)

The Symphonic Variations , M. 46, is a work for piano and orchestra, written in 1885 by C?sar Franck. It has been described as "one of Franck's tightest and most finished works", "a superb blending of piano and orchestra", and "a flawless work and as near perfection as a human composer can hope to get in a work of this nature"....
for piano and orchestra has reminded many commentators of the opening of the slow movement of the Beethoven Concerto No. 4.

III. Rondo (Vivace)

In contrast to the preceding movements, the third movement, in traditional rondo

Rondo

Rondo, and its French language equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also in reference to a character-type that is distinct from the form....
form, is characterized by a very rhythmic theme. The main theme begins in the subdominant

Subdominant

In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the Tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant....
key of C major before correcting itself to reach a cadence

Cadence (music)

In Classical music musical theory, a harmonic cadence is a chord progression of two chord s that Conclusion a phrase , section , or composition of music....
in the tonic G major.

Cadenzas

Cadenza

In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a solo or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
s for the Fourth Piano Concerto have been written a number of pianists and composers throughout its history; these include Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann

Clara Josephine Wieck was a German musician, one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic music, as well as a composer. Her prestige — she became known as "the high priestess of music" — exerted over a 61-year concert career, changed the format and repertoire of the piano concert and the tastes of the listening publi...
, Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conducting....
, Hans von Bülow

Hans von Bülow

Hans Guido Freiherr von B?low was a German Conducting, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic music. He was one of the most famous conductors of the 19th century, and his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, including Richard Wagner....
, Ignaz Moscheles

Ignaz Moscheles

Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire....
, Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns was a French composer, organist, Conductor , and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre , Samson and Delilah , Havanaise , Introduction and Rondo capriccioso , and his Symphony No....
, Anton Rubinstein

Anton Rubinstein

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian pianist, composer and Conducting. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos....
, Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Medtner

Nikolai Karlovich Medtner was a Russian composer and pianist.A younger contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, he wrote a substantial number of compositions, all of which include the piano....
, Eugen d'Albert

Eugen d'Albert

Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scotland-born Germany pianist and composer.Educated in United Kingdom, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria....
, Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky , was a famed Poland-United States pianist, composer, and teacher. He has sometimes been described as the "Pianist of Pianists"....
, and Samuil Feinberg

Samuil Feinberg

Samuil Evgenyevich Feinberg was a Russian composer and pianist. Raised in Moscow, he entered the Moscow Conservatory and studied under Alexander Goldenweiser ....
.

Media

External links

Piano Concerto No. 4 sheet music available at