Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in Bonn, Germany, on December 17, 1770, and died in Vienna, Austria, on March 26, 1827. The first public performance of the Piano Concerto No. 4 took place at the Theater-an-der-Wien in Vienna on December 22, 1808, with the composer as soloist. In addition to the solo piano, the Concerto No. 4 is scored for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-four minutes.

Beethoven completed the score of his G-Major Concerto in 1806, and first performed the work during a March 1807 private concert at the palace of his patron, Prince Joseph Lobkowitz. The first public performance of the Fourth Piano Concerto took place at the Vienna Theater-an-der-Wien on December 22, 1808. In addition to the Fourth Piano Concerto, the concert, sponsored by Beethoven, included the world premieres of the composer’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and Choral Fantasy, as well as four movements from his Mass in C and the soprano aria, Ah! Perfido.

The benefit concert was far from a resounding success. The meager rehearsal time was insufficient for a program of such length and difficulty. During the premiere of the Choral Fantasy, the orchestra was forced to stop in the middle of the work and begin a section over again. Further, the audience endured this taxing winter program in an unheated theater.

Perhaps the Fourth Piano Concerto fared as well as any piece on the December 22, 1808 program. Beethoven was the soloist, and, according to German musician Johann Reichardt: “He played...with astounding cleverness and in the fastest possible tempi. The (second movement), a masterly movement of beautifully developed song, he sang on this instrument with a profound melancholy that moved me.”

The Fourth Piano Concerto proved to be the last such work Beethoven composed for his own performance. Increasing deafness finally made public appearances all but impossible for one of the greatest piano virtuosos of his time.

Beethoven completed his magnificent Fifth Piano Concerto (“Emperor”) in 1809. The “Emperor,” Beethoven’s final Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, is certainly a fitting culmination of the composer’s efforts in this genre. Still, there are many advocates for the G-Major Concerto as the composer’s finest. It is a miraculous blend of haunting lyricism, expressive virtuosity, and formal innovation. As British musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey observed: “Beethoven has now well and truly laid the foundations of his concerto form and is free to raise the edifice to heights undreamt of in earlier music.”

The Fourth Piano Concerto is in three movements. The first (Allegro moderato) is by far the longest. Instead of the traditional orchestral introduction, the soloist immediately intones the rapt opening theme. The brief second movement (Andante con moto) is in the form of a dialogue between the strings and piano. Franz Liszt compared this episode to “Orpheus taming the wild beasts with his music.” The finale (Rondo. Vivace) ensues without pause. Beethoven presents a remarkable variety of moods and instrumental colors throughout. After a cadenza and series of trills, there is a moment of repose before the soloist and orchestra dash headlong to a Presto finish.

program notes by Ken Meltzer