Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.1 in C major, Op.15

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, in his seven instrumental concerts (five for piano, one for violin and one triple for piano, violin and cello, continued the tendency, initiated by Mozart of symphonizing the instrumental concert and managed to achieve a perfect balance between the brilliant and virtuosic part of the solo instrument and the opulent, symphonically unfolded orchestra – an aspect in which he not just surpassed his predecessors, but also left superb masterpieces that have become the standards of the concert form for the next generation of artists. The FIRST PIANO CONCERT was completed in 1796-1797, with Beethoven himself giving the premiere performance the next year in Prague. But although published first, the concert was actually Beethoven’s third opus in the genre – two other works were created prior to it: a subsequently forgotten concert in E-flat Major and the Second Concert, which was published later than the First, in 1801. The work was born during Beethoven’s first creative period following his settling to Vienna in 1792. Beethoven’s contacts with Vienna originated as early as 1787 when he visited Europe’s illustrious music capital and met Mozart. Beethoven’s inspired, passionate improvisations on the piano made a strong impression on Mozart and he predicted a great future for the young musician. A little later, in the end of 1790, he was introduced for the first time to Joseph Haydn, who made a short stopover in Bonn on his way to London. Haydn expressed approval for one of his cantatas and when they met again, on his way back to Vienna in the summer of 1792, he agreed to conduct the young composer’s training. And thus, in November of the same year, with the support of the local elector, Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna, where he was to remain for the rest of his life, carrying on the traditions of Haydn and Mozart and crowning the culmination of the Vienna classical school. In his first Viennese years Beethoven was not aspire to quickly make his mark as a composer, but devoted himself to studying and playing the piano. He studied intensively compositional techniques with Haydn, at the same time was tutored by fashionable Viennese composer J. Schenk and took violin lessons with violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. He studied the technique of the quartet style with Bohemian composer Alois Förster and famous Antonio Salieri instructed him in Italian vocal composing stile on Italian texts. With Haydn’s departure for England in 1794, the Elector of Bonn expected Beethoven to return to his native town. But he decided to stay in Vienna and continue his studies with famous theoretician Johann Albrehtsberger, owing to whom he mastered sophisticated contrapuntal technique and developed the polyphonic thinking so vividly manifested in his mature later music. Since his stipend from the Elector ended, he was offered financial support by several Viennese aristocrats, who already knew his abilities. These included Prince Franz-Joseph Lobkowitz, Prince Karl Lichnowski and Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who remained forever his patrons and friends. By that time Beethoven had already gained a reputation in Vienna of unsurpassed piano virtuoso and improviser. He was admitted and made a great success at the aristocratic parlours, where he often played preludes and fugues from J. S. Bach’s Well Tempered Piano, but he also performed works of his own. His friend Nikolaus Simrock decided to undertake the publication of his works. Beethoven spent a great deal of 1794 in composing and preparing his first works for publication – the three piano trios designated as Opus 1 and dedicated to Prince Lichnowski. They had great success in the following year and brought in some income, which covered the expenses of the composer for one year. March of the next 1795 saw the first public performance of Beethoven before broad Viennese audiences, where he debuted with a piano concert of his own. It is not known for sure whether this was the First or the Second Concert, as no written records are extant and both works were equally near completion, but none of them was as yet published. The success was huge and from that moment on Beethoven invariably won the recognition and affection of the audiences. In the following 1796 Beethoven undertook a concert tour around Europe which resembles a similar tour made in 1789. Accompanied by Prince Lichnowski (who also accompanied Mozart during his tour), Beethoven visited Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, and was universally acclaimed both as a composer and as a performer. He spent more time on Prague, where his reputation preceded him owing to the family connections Prince Lichnowski, and in Berlin, where he composed his two sonatas for violoncello and piano Opus 5, dedicated to King Friedrich Wilhelm II, who was a lover of music and played the violoncello. He returned to Vienna in 1796 to embark on a second tour in November, this time visiting Pressburg (now Bratislava) and Pest. In this early creative period between 1795 and 1803 – Beethoven created more than 100 works in different genres: two symphonies, three piano concerts, the ballet “The Creatures of Prometheus”, oratorios, quintets, quartets, trios, septets, sonatas for violin and piano and for cello and piano, twenty piano sonatas. All these works already reflect maturity, compositional artistry and the singular individuality of Beethoven’s style. All this is manifest in the First Piano Concert, a work full of vigour, poetics and radiant dynamics.