0. Piano Concerto (Beethoven)

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The Piano Concerto in E flat major WoO 4 is an early work by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven , which he composed in 1784 at the age of thirteen or fourteen during his time in Bonn. In places it is shown as “0. Concert “.

background

It is not clear whether a score was present; if so, then this is considered lost. All that remains is a handwritten copy of the piano reduction with notes and a reduction for the piano of the orchestral tutti in Beethoven's hand. On the front page is a note (probably from Beethoven's father): "un Concert pour le Clavecin ou Forte-piano composé par Louis de Beethoven agé de douze ans" ("A concerto for harpsichord or fortepiano by Louis van Beethoven, twelve years old" ). Beethoven's comments - a multitude of performance designations such as piano , forte or crescendo - indicate that a pianoforte was actually intended as the solo instrument , since such a dynamic variety of expression would not have been possible on a harpsichord , the predecessor of the piano. The orchestra consists of two flutes, two horns and strings.

The papers were not discovered until after his death in 1828. The manuscript remained with Artaria- Verlag in Vienna until 1890 ; In 1888 the Austrian musicologist Guido Adler “rediscovered” it and published it with a critical introduction by Breitkopf & Härtel in the same year. In 1901 the manuscript was acquired by the Royal Library in Berlin and is now being kept in the Berlin State Library ( Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz ).

There are three sentences in total:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Larghetto
  3. Rondo allegretto

literature

  • Ludwig van Beethoven. Piano Concerto in E-flat major WoO 4, John Ceander Mitchell, AR Editions Inc. 2010.
  • Leon Plantinga, Beethoven's Concertos: History, Style, Performance, WW Norton & Co, New York, 1999.
  • Guido Adler: A movement from an unknown piano concerto by Beethoven. In: Quarterly magazine for musicology. Volume 4, number 4, 1888, ISSN  0863-6206 , pp. 451-470, here p. 461 ( digitized version ).