I have been listening to this piano masterpiece every day for the past week. And I am foetunate to be hearing the performance played by a young man who will likely become quite famous: Pianist Eric Lu.
More about Mr. Lu on another occasion. Today, I want to share with you more about the Beethoven 4.
I read somewhere that Beethoven was walking somewhere in Vienna with his good friend Carl Czerny, and they passed a home where someone was playing the Mozart Piano Concerto #20. And Beethoven is supposed to have exclaimed: “Ah, Czerney, you and I will never write music like that…”
As you view Beethoven’s image above, keep in mind that we were all young once…
Czerny met Beethoven in 1801, when Wenzel Krumpholz, a Czech composer and violinist, scheduled a presentation for Czerny at the home of Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven asked Czerny to play his Pathétique Sonata and Adelaide. Beethoven was impressed with the 10-year-old Czerny and accepted him as a pupil. Czerny remained under Beethoven’s tutelage until 1804 and sporadically thereafter. Czerny particularly admired Beethoven’s facility at improvisation, his expertise at fingering, the rapidity of his scales and trills, and his restrained behavior while performing.
Of course Beethoven composed music at the level of Mozart’s piano concerto #20, and the Beethoven concerto #4 is a wonderful example.
On December 22, 1808, at age 38, Beethoven presented a concert of several of his compositions at the “Theater an de Wien” in Vienna. It was a very cold day, there were inadequate rehearsals, and the amazing Piano Concerto #4 made little impact on the audience. Many years later, Felix Mendelssohn performed the Concerto again, and it has been a favorite since that time.
Now we can get back to pianist Eric Lu, and here is his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4:
