Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)

The concerto is divided into the following three movements:[1]

The concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭ (clarinet I playing in A in movement 2), two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani in E♭ and B♭, and strings. In the second movement, the 2nd flute, 2nd clarinet, trumpets, and timpani are tacet.[20]

Beethoven began innovating the piano concerto genre with his third piano concerto and continued through his fifth piano concerto.[21] While Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concertos consisted of the piano and orchestra working in tandem, in Beethoven's last two piano concertos, the pianist was the "hero," the dominant and directional soloist.[22][23] Also, in Mozart's concertos, the soloist was a virtuoso and more important than the composer; in Beethoven's, the pianist is a vector for the composer.[24][25]

Beethoven created the tradition of linking movements in concertos, especially the middle and the last. Subsequent composers connected and transitioned through all movements in an attempt to create unity in a piece.[13]

The first movement is longer than any that Beethoven had previously composed in the piano concerto genre.[11][26] Beethoven adhered to the traditional sonata form but significantly redefined the interaction between piano and orchestra.[27] The opening cadenza precedes orchestral exposition, solo exposition, development, recapitulation, written cadenza, and a coda.[28]

Beethoven explicitly forbids the soloist from performing their own cadenza, a shift from previous piano concertos. Stephan Lindeman and William Kinderman have speculated that Beethoven wanted to control all aspects of the piece since he could not personally perform it or create a better flow without a virtuosic interruption.[29][30] Following this piece, composers wrote cadenzas instead of leaving them to the performer.[27]

The concerto opens with the orchestra offering three sonorous chords. The solo piano responds to each chord with flourishes of arpeggios, trills, and scales.[31] This opening was new in classical concertos, and the flourishes almost became thematic.[11]

The propulsive first theme follows, and the expository material repeats with variations, virtuoso figurations, and modified harmonies. The second theme, a march, appears first in B minor form in the strings, then thematically shifts to C-flat major by the horns.[32][8] Throughout the movement, Beethoven transforms these themes into a range of keys, moods, and figurations.[32]

Following the opening, the movement follows Beethoven's three-theme sonata structure for a concerto. The orchestral exposition is a two-theme sonata exposition. The second exposition with the piano introduces a triumphant, virtuosic third theme that belongs solely to the solo instrument, a trademark of Beethoven's concertos. The coda elaborates upon the open-ended first theme, building intensity before finishing into a final climactic arrival at the tonic E♭ major.

The second movement in B major forms a quiet nocturne for the solo piano, muted strings, and wind instruments that converse with the solo piano. The movement briefly changes to D major, a very remote key from the concerto's E♭ major. The third movement begins without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B♭, the dominant of the tonic key E♭. The end of the second movement builds directly into the third.

Beethoven uses B major as a “surprise” key for abrupt distant key relationships. This resolves to B♭ in the transition to the last movement.[33]

The final movement of the concerto is a seven-part rondo form (ABACABA). The solo piano introduces the main theme before the orchestra affirms the soloist's statement. The rondo's B-section begins with piano scales before the orchestra again responds. The C-section is much longer, presenting the theme from the A-section in three different keys before the piano performs a passage of arpeggios. Rather than finishing with a strong entrance from the orchestra, the trill ending the cadenza dies away until the introductory theme reappears, played first by the piano and then the orchestra. In the last section, the theme undergoes variation before the concerto ends with a short cadenza and robust orchestral response.

On 2 October 1912, Frank La Forge recorded the adagio movement with a studio orchestra for the Victor Talking Machine Company; the recording was issued as Victor 55030-A.[43] In 1922, Frederic Lamond made the first complete recording with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Eugene Goossens.[44] In 1945, Walter Gieseking made a stereophonic tape recording for German radio with the Grosses Funkorcheser under Artur Rother. It is one of the earliest stereo recordings and one of about 500 such recordings made during the war, of which five survived. During the quiet passages, anti-aircraft weapons can be heard.[45][46] As part of complete recordings of Beethoven's piano concertos, Piano Concerto No. 5 was recorded by Wilhelm Backhaus in 1927,[47] Artur Schnabel in the early 1930's,[48] Leon Fleisher in 1959-1961,[49] Daniel Barenboim in 1967[50] and 2012,[51] Vladimir Ashkenazy three times,[52][53][54] and Maurizio Pollini twice.[55][56]

• Bribitzer-Stull, Matthew (2006). "The Cadenza as Parenthesis: An Analytic Approach". Journal of Music Theory. 50 (2): 211–251. doi:10.1215/00222909-2008-016.
• Eisen, Cliff (n.d.). "Ludwig van Beethoven – The five piano concertos". beethoven.org.pl. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
• Kerman, Joseph; Tyson, Alan; Burnham, Scott G. (2001). "Ludwig van Beethoven". Oxford Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40026.
• Shen, Yan (May 2015). "Narrative Analysis of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5" (PDF). uh-ir.tdl.org. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
• Tyson, Alan (February 1969). "Beethoven's Heroic Phase". The Musical Times. 110 (1512): 139–141. doi:10.2307/952790. JSTOR 952790.