Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1800 and was first performed on 5 April 1803, with the composer as soloist. The year for which the concerto was composed (1800) has however been questioned by contemporary musicologists. It was published in 1804. During that same performance, the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives were also premiered. The composition was dedicated to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. The first primary theme is reminiscent of that of Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto.
I. Allegro con brio
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This movement is known to make forceful use of the theme (direct and indirect) throughout.
Orchestral exposition: In the orchestral exposition, the theme is introduced by the strings, and used throughout the movement. It is developed several times. In the third section (second subject), the clarinet introduces the second main theme, which is in the relative major key, E-flat major.
Second exposition: The piano enters with an ascending scale motif. The structure of the exposition in the piano solo is similar to that of the orchestral exposition.
Recapitulation: The orchestra restates the theme in fortissimo, with the wind instruments responding by building up a minor ninth chord as in the exposition. For the return of the second subject, Beethoven modulates to the tonic major, C major. A dark transition to the cadenza occurs, immediately switching from C major to C minor.
Cadenza: Beethoven wrote one cadenza for this movement. The cadenza Beethoven wrote is at times stormy and ends on a series of trills that calm down to pianissimo. Many other composers and pianists have written alternative cadenzas.
Coda: Beethoven subverts the expectation of a return to the tonic at the end of the cadenza by prolonging the final trill and eventually arriving on a dominant seventh. The piano plays a series of arpeggios before the music settles into the home key of C minor. Then the music intensifies before a full tutti occurs, followed by the piano playing descending arpeggios, the ascending scale from the second exposition, and finally a resolute ending on C.
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The second movement is in the key of E major, in this context a key relatively remote from the concerto's opening key of C minor (another example being Brahms's first symphony.). If the movement adhered to traditional form, its key would be E-flat major (the relative key) or A-flat major (the submediant key). The movement opens with the solo piano and the opening is marked with detailed pedalling instructions.
III. Rondo – Allegro
I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to set it all down on paper.
- Platinga, Leon (Summer 1989). "When Did Beethoven Compose His Third Piano Concerto?". The Journal of Musicology 7 (3): 275–307. (subscription required)
- Steinberg, Michael, The Concerto: A Listener's Guide, pp. 59–63, Oxford (1998).
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven).|
- Piano Concerto No. 3: Free scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Sheetmusic, Musopen
- Aperçu of Apotheosis, Program Notes on the Third Piano Concerto by Ron Drummond
- "Cadenza to Piano Concerto Nr. 3, Op. 37 (by Beethoven?) Gardi Anhang 2", discovered in Melk Abbey in 1989
- Recording with Arthur Schnabel, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1933)