Yeol Eum Son is a Korean-born pianist who now lives in Germany. I love her playing!
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 emerges with unexpected gentleness. In 1807, when this music was first heard, any reasonably informed member of a Viennese audience would have expected that a concerto should begin with a long introduction during which the orchestra introduces the major themes of the first movement.
Imagine, then, the astonishment with which listeners, conditioned in this way, must have heard Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto when it was new. Rather than the authoritarian sounds of a full orchestra, the first notes they heard were played softly on the piano, the gentle murmuring of a theme based on repeated notes and simple harmonies. And then — just as surprising — following its five-measure presentation of the thematic germ of this movement, the piano simply withdraws, not to be heard from again for another 69 measures.
That was the genius of Beethoven. He was innovative, he created surprises even though some of the Viennese audience must have reacted to this unconventional music as “Ein Skandal!”
Here is Yeol Eum Son to play this music for you:
