Beethoven denigrated his first two piano concertos in a letter to his publisher in 1801 (Day 110), but with his Piano Concerto No. 3, there are no excuses. Beethoven is ready for a first-class work in a genre earlier commandeered by Mozart, who had written 23 piano concertos.
Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto premiered in 1803. In it we see the archetypal Romantic piano and violin concerto taking form: a long first movement full of ponderous thoughts, a slow movement of heart-breaking beauty, and an exhilarating final movement of life-affirming joy.
In 1796, Beethoven had jotted down his first idea about his 3rd Piano Concerto: “To the Concerto in C minor kettledrum at the cadenza.” At the end of the 1st movement cadenza, the timpani announce the reintroduction of the orchestra, and engage in a little dialog with the piano.
#Beethoven250 Day 166
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor (Opus 37), 1800–03
A splendid 1989 performance with Krystian Zimerman, Leonard Bernstein, and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Beethoven’s germinal idea about timpani in the first movement of his 3rd Piano Concerto might have suggested the initial martial theme, but which soon gives way to more lyrical passages. More than three minutes pass before the piano makes its entrance.
The 2nd movement Largo of the 3rd Piano Concerto announces itself with authority and sustains a gentle expressive beauty that leisurely drifts among feelings of sorrow, resignation, contentedness, and rapture.
The finale of the 3rd Piano Concerto is a joyful rondo with unexpected episodes and inventive transitions. At one point, the orchestra begins playing a fugue and the piano simply refuses to get involved! The coda is magnificent.
#Beethoven250 Day 166
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor (Opus 37), 1800–03
German pianist Margarita Höhenrieder with American conductor Leon Fleisher, who certainly knows this work from the keyboard perspective as well.
The premiere of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto was in a concert that Beethoven organized for his own benefit on 5 April 1803 at the Theater an der Wien, with Beethoven himself at the piano. Kapellmeister Ignaz von Seyfried reminisced:
“In the playing of the concerto movements he asked me to turn the pages for him; but — heaven help me! — that was easier said than done. I saw almost nothing but empty leaves; at the most on one page or the other a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me scribbled down to serve as clues for him; but he played nearly all of the solo part from memory, since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to put it all down on paper. He gave me a secret glance whenever he was at the end of one of the invisible passages and my scarcely concealable anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him greatly and he laughed heartily at the jovial supper which we ate afterwards.”
The benefit concert on 5 April 1803 was also the occasion for the premiere of “Christus am Ölberge” (Christ on the Mount of Olives), for which Beethoven had written out the trombone parts in bed that morning. Beethoven later revised “Christus” and this earlier version was lost.