Beethoven Second Piano Concerto Op. 19 10/26/18
October 26, 2018
In 1795 Beethoven had a mission to achieve! He had a Vienna debut concert coming up. Beethoven was 24 years old (at the time of the concert), and he needed to show how great he was as a composer and a pianist. Beethoven had 2 big musicians to follow, Mozart and Haydn. He carried their tradition and he explored more innovative harmonies, wide range of expression, and virtuoso piano writing in this piece.
By 1790′ the music became more and more popular among the aristocracy. Imagine! Beethoven was thinking about his audience when he was writing this piece (I think!). He is using the Viennese Folk tune in the 3rd movement. This movement is really fun and charming, and I imagine the aristocrats sitting in the Beethoven’s debut concert were smiling constantly during the 3rd movement. In the 2nd movement he uses an interesting pedal marking. He wants us to put our right foot on the sustain pedal for 10 measures! This creates a very special sound. The sound will take us to the space, almost! All of the notes are ringing together in the soft dynamic and the sound plays into the air. I love this moment! Another interesting fact is that we see “fugue” in the cadenza of 1st movement. Of course fugues is usually a signature of his late works. Do you know why? Because Beethoven wrote this cadenza much later than the body of the concerto, I believe around 1809. That is why this cadenza sounds more romantic. It is a long cadenza and the materials are from the orchestra exposition. He writes a virtuoso piano part for the cadenza, and it is really wonderful to play it. By the way this movement has double expositions, orchestra tutti exposition and piano entrance exposition! Beethoven put an extra effort to do this. It is fun to analyze this movement though!
At Beethoven’s Vienna debut concert he played not only this concerto, but also he played one of Mozart piano concertos. Later in that year, 1795, Haydn invited Beethoven to play a concert together, and they chose this concerto, Haydn conducting and Beethoven on piano! Beethoven carried Mozart and Haydn’s tradition and he went on to the next page in the music history.
I had a fantastic time performing this concerto last Saturday, as a part of “Beethoven and His Mentors” Concert. I felt really good how I played! And I appreciate many people came to me at the reception to tell me how much they enjoyed it. Thank you very much! I will continue my journey with Beethoven, and look forward to seeing you at my next concert!