Towards the end of 1808, a proposal was made to Beethoven to become Kapellmeister (director of music) for the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia, a German-speaking client state under the control of the French Empire.
The King of Westphalia was the French Emperor’s brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, who is described by Beethoven-biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer in a shocking flourish of offensive language as a “half-educated, frivolous, prodigal and effeminate young satrap and sybarite.”
The proposal made to Beethoven involved an annual lifelong salary in return that Beethoven occasionally play for the king of Westphalia and conduct short and infrequent chamber concerts.
Perhaps Beethoven was truly interested in serving as Kapellmeister of Westphalia, but the offer became instead a bargaining chip for a deal for Beethoven to remain in Vienna. This was an annuity financed by Archduke Rudolph, Prince Lobkowitz, and Prince Ferdinand Kinsky. In return, Beethoven would arrange annual benefit concerts and charity concerts but mostly be free from financial encumbrances. The contract began: “It must be the striving and aim of every true artist to achieve a position in which he can devote himself wholly to the elaboration of larger works and not be hindered by other matters or economical considerations. A musical composer can, therefore, have no livelier desire than to be left undisturbedly to the invention of works of magnitude and then to produce them in public.”
The annuity contract with Beethoven was dated 1 March 1809. About six weeks later, war was declared with France. Vienna was soon under besiegement, with consequent shortages and inflation, which would have a long-term effect on the true worth of Beethoven’s annuity.
Military engagement also seem to have colored the first movement of Beethoven’s first major work of 1809 — the Piano Concerto No. 5, nicknamed (but not by Beethoven) the “Emperor,” and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, who was the son and brother of a Holy Roman Emperor.
It’s common for musicologists to speak of Beethoven’s “heroic style,” but German-American author Alfred Einstein explored “Beethoven’s Military Style” in Chapter XX of his “Essays on Music.” He contends that all the first movements of Beethoven’s concertos have this style.
The Piano Concerto No. 5 “is the apotheosis of the military concept. Not within reason is it called the Emperor Concerto: an emperor of military splendor reviewing the victory parade of his home-coming forces, Napoleon at the height of his power. It is both the troops, passing by with bands playing, and the man who dreams this dream of power and is able to bring it to fulfillment. This concerto is a sister work of the Eroica: the heroic element in the guise of the military.”
Regardless whether it’s “heroic” or “military” or just generally “exultant,” the first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 5 is a dazzling display of big chords and grandiose piano figurations, made all the more effective with its mysterious descents into contemplative quiet.
#Beethoven250 Day 215
Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor” in E♭ Major (Opus 73), 1809
Romanian pianist Alina Bercu with the great student orchestra of the University of Music “Franz Liszt” Weimar, where she studied piano.
After the 20-minute opening of the Piano Concerto No. 5, only an extraordinarily beautiful slow movement can so quickly dissipate the battlefield smoke and send the soldiers back to hearth and home. Both hymn-like and songful, the Adagio stops time and lightly caresses our cheek.
The Adagio of the Piano Concerto No. 5 is so beautiful that Leonard Bernstein couldn’t resist borrowing a phrase to set the words “There’s a place for us” in his song “Somewhere.” (In a strange mash-up, “Hold my hand and I’ll take you there” comes from “Swan Lake.”)
By 1809, Beethoven has had loads of practice in transitioning without pause from a slow movement to a fast one, but the Fifth Piano Concerto does it with elegance and wit, and the exhilarating Rondo finale in rollicking 6/8 time resolves all outstanding issues.
The Piano Concerto No. 5 was the first piano concerto that Beethoven didn’t himself premiere. The Choral Fantasy was apparently his last major public appearance at the keyboard. With his progressively encroaching hearing loss, Beethoven was retiring from public performance.
No longer trusting himself to perform his piano concertos publicly, Beethoven seems to have lost interest in the genre. In 1815 he did work on some sketches and a first movement for another, but there was not to be a Piano Concerto No. 6.