Adagio un poco mosso, second movement from Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73
London Festival Orchestra
Alfred Scholz, conductor
Sylvia Capova, piano
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the "Emperor Concerto", was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The first performance took place in December 1810, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider. In 1812, Carl Czerny, his student, gave the Vienna debut of this work. The epithet of "Emperor" for this concerto, used in English-speaking countries, was not Beethoven's own, but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto. Its duration is approximately forty minutes. The second movement in B major is, in standard contrast to the first, calm and reflective. It moves into the third movement without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B-flat, the dominant note to the tonic key E-flat.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
9 окт 2009
