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Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.2, Op.19

Further Information

• "You shall receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands:" with these auspicious words, Beethoven's patron informed his young protegee of a dramatic development. It was the summer of 1792, six months after the death of Mozart, and the twenty-one-year-old composer had been invited to study with Haydn in Vienna. For the ambitious young man from Bonn, it was an enviable opportunity, an unequalled chance to develop his skills while simultaneously developing his reputation in the most musical city in Europe. He accepted immediately and began the journey to Vienna, the city that would be his home for the rest of his life.

  Beethoven got along well with Vienna, finding innumerable delights in its concert halls and salons. Unfortunately, he got along rather less well with Haydn, who, for all his admitted mastery of music, was nonetheless and elderly man of limited energy. Student and instructor were emotionally unsuited to each other. Before long, the lessons came to an end, with no tears shed on either side, yet this temporary association was not entirely without effect. After all, it was Haydn's invitation that brought Beethoven to Vienna where he became familiar with the music of great masters, including Haydn himself, but also Mozart. As Beethoven's patron in Bonn had predicted, the young composer did inherit a measure of Mozart's musical style.

  This influence is most easily perceived in Beethoven's early chamber music, yet his first two piano concerti also bear a certain Mozartian flavor. That the earlier master's style would play a role is reasonable, for until Beethoven's late concerti arrived on the scene, Mozart was considered the master of the piano concerto, having completed twenty-seven works in the genre. Of that number, the first four may be considered student efforts, but virtually all the remaining concerti demonstrate the finely honed balance and melodic invention upon which Mozart had built his reputation. Beethoven knew Mozart's concerti well. He had performed some of them in concert, and no doubt, had also heard others played by other pianists. In his own early piano concerti, he built upon this familiarity, echoing Mozart's overall structure, while opting for rather heartier orchestration and more unusual, less mannered melodies and harmonies that hint at the power to come in later Beethoven compositions.

  Other than an unpublished concerto from his teenaged years, Beethoven's first two piano concerti were written in 1794 and 1795. Because they were published in reverse order, the C-major concerto from 1795 is known as "number one," whereas the B-flat major concerto from 1794 is dubbed "number two." The composer apparently thought little of either work, for when he submitted them to a publisher, he described both in disparaging terms, and referred to the B-flat work as "not one of the best." But perhaps he was only attempting to sound humble, as one might expect of a young man new to Vienna. If so, it would be one of the few humble moments of his career. By the time the two concerti appeared in print in 1801, Beethoven was on his way to international stardom.