I. Allegro II. Adagio un poco mosso III. Rondo. Allegro

Beethoven composed the final and grandest of his five piano concertos in 1809, although it seems he made some minor alterations in 1810. It is not just the shared tonality of E flat that suggests Beethoven was thinking of a concerto equivalent to the Eroica symphony, but also its atmosphere and the character of its themes. Thus we can link the concerto to the ideals of the French revolution and the cult surrounding Napoleon’s personality and it is no accident that in English speaking lands, the concerto is generally known as “The Emperor.” It is an irony of fate that when the work was being composed in 1809, Vienna was under siege by the French army and Prince Rudolf, the dedicatee of the concerto, was forced to temporarily flee the city with the imperial family.

It is possible that when calm returned, Beethoven himself first played the piano solo at a private performance in the residence of his pupil, friend and patron, Prince Rudolf, but he dared not undertake a public performance because of the deteriorating state of his hearing. The concerto received its public premiere in Leipzig on November 28th, 1811, where the soloist was Beethoven’s distinguished pupil Czerny, who also gave the Viennese premiere a year later.

The work is cast in the traditional three movement form, with two fast movements surrounding a slow central Adagio. The first movement conforms to the sonata structure of concertos and symphonies, and is marked Allegro. While not a complete novelty for its time, the entry of the soloist with a virtuosic cadenza was still fundamentally surprising. The usual habit was to allow the soloist to show his pianistic wares in a cadenza just before the coda but Beethoven seems not to have had the patience to wait that long. The previous concerto in G major employed a similar idea but it begins with a theme of a very different character. The introduction to the E flat major concerto gives room to not only the soloist but also the orchestra. According to the Hungarian scholar Bence Szabolcsi “the piano solo enters among the ensemble like a prince into the throne room, between the rows of courtiers, with regal consciousness.” The enchanting minor key secondary theme resolves the military character and the recapitulation feels more like liberated joyous music rather than something forceful or violent. Towards the end, the movement appears to be starting again and in the coda the motifs from the orchestral introduction re-appear and Beethoven includes a brief, composed solo cadenza, not trusting the performer to improvise one that would upset his well thought out structure.

In the slow movement, to quote Szabolcsi again, “here the starry sky truly opens up above Beethoven (…) the fires of the universe light up, (…) they sparkle in their full nocturnal splendour and merge into an other worldly coronet.” The beautiful theme also predicts the Benedictus from the Missa Solemnis. This movement does not end as such, but uniquely makes way for the third. After a few quiet, improvisatory moments, where the piano seems to be groping for directions, the basic galloping motif of the third movement bursts forth with elemental power. This rondo theme – rather like the themes of the first movement – can be linked with many other themes from Beethoven’s oeuvre, such as the Trio from the Eroica scherzo. This music is good humoured and triumphant but just before the end, Beethoven surprises us with an unexpected twist: above the sinister, soft beats of the timpani, the solo instrument seems to be bidding us farewell; then the coda explodes with a shower of scales, leaving the feeling in the listener of joy and affirmation.