Composed: 1787-89 (rev. 1796, 1801)
Premiered: 1795, Vienna
Duration: 28 minutes

Beethoven's Piano Concerto in B-flat Major, known as his Concerto No. 2, is actually his earliest in order of composition (ignoring a youthful effort he produced at the age of 14, which was never published). It was probably composed at least in part while Beethoven was still in Bonn.

Its performance in March 1795 was Beethoven's first public appearance in Vienna. It was an intermission feature at a charity concert, a performance of a new oratorio by one Kartellieri. The newspapers reported that it was warmly applauded on account of its complexity. "Complex" would not be a word used to describe it today. Despite the increasingly threatening international situation in 1795, with Napoleon's forces steadily gaining ground, the Viennese remained unconcerned and enjoyed undemanding entertainment.

This concerto is rather lightweight compared to Mozart's late piano concertos, not to mention Beethoven's own. It is a fairly typical concerto of the 1790s, showing little of the strength to come in a few years. Beethoven probably improvised much of the solo part, and he was not really satisfied with it in its original form. He revised it before a subsequent performance in Prague, substituting a more interesting final movement, the one we know today. By this time, he had composed another concerto, which was published fairly promptly and therefore became known as No. 1. That is why Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 is actually his first.

Program note by the late Dr. C.W. Helleiner.