Sketches for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 date from 1795, the year he completed the No. 2. Beethoven was in his mid-twenties when he finished both works, and with his emergent career in mind, he fashioned both as virtuoso pieces to showcase his own skills as a pianist.
While cadenzas were often improvised in the 18th century, Beethoven took the trouble to write out three contrasting cadenzas for this concerto, presumably to suit differing occasions and audiences.
The premiere of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 took place in 1798 in Prague, with the 27-year-old Beethoven at the keyboard. Historians speculate that he may have performed an earlier version of the concerto in Vienna in 1795 at a benefit concert for the widows of members of the Vienna Musicians’ Guild.
We know Beethoven as an inveterate reviser and polisher, but an occasion such as a Guild benefit would have given him a chance to test himself and this concerto before a knowing audience.
Now… here is Yuja Wang as soloist and conductor in the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #1:
