Ludwig Beethoven
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in E flat major, op. 73

One of the most popular works in the classical concert repertoire – and at the same time one of the most complex: Ludwig van Beethoven completed his Fifth Piano Concerto during the spring of 1809, during the very days when Vienna was besieged for the second time by Napoleon’s troops. It was the British music writer George Grove who, in 1879, gave it the epithet “Emperor”. Colleagues such as Donald Francis Tovey rejected such associations with imperial splendour as overly vulgar. Yet, not entirely without reason, the name has stuck to this magnificent E flat major concerto – at least in the English-speaking world – since it captivates the listener with its grand gestures and powerful sonority. Heroic, military characteristics shape the themes of the outer movements and, in many places, the orchestration itself. The assertiveness of the solo part is staged with particular effectiveness right from the start.

And yet, the stirring effect of the dramatic outbursts ultimately relies on those moments when volume and movement are reduced to a minimum. In the first movement, this is evident in the minor-key version of the second theme, which seems to march on tiptoe. Even in the orchestral introduction, this precedes the smoother major-key variant of the same idea. Another moment of extreme suspense comes at the transition to the reprise, when only the insistent violas remain beneath the piano’s soft broken chords. And, of course, there is the ending of the finale: as the timpani beat out a distant military rhythm, silence seems to settle in. But then, the piano’s unleashed runs trigger the orchestra’s final, commanding gesture of power.

The second movement, the Adagio un poco moto in B major, radiates a meditative tranquillity reminiscent of early romantic nocturnal moods, conveyed by muted strings. Beethoven marked the piano’s first entry with the mysterious performance instruction dämmernd (crepuscular). His intended meaning might be glimpsed in a remark he wrote at the bottom of the score page: “Östreich löhne Napoleon” (Austria should pay Napoleon back): his homeland was to avenge what the French conqueror had inflicted upon its people. One of the reasons the aforementioned epithet of the concerto is problematic is that it is unclear which “Emperor” Beethoven might have been expected to honour. Although his attitude towards Napoleon fluctuated between admiration and abhorrence, he did in fact consider, in the autumn of 1808, accepting the position of kapellmeister at the court of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jérôme, in Kassel. By doing so, he increased the pressure on his patrons in Vienna. The tactic was successful: within a short time, a consortium of young aristocrats came together to grant him a lifetime pension, enabling him to make a living as a freelance composer.

“What destructive, chaotic life all around me, nothing but drums, cannons, human suffering in every form.” With these words, Beethoven described to his publisher Breitkopf the situation in Vienna at the end of July 1809, when the city was occupied by Napoleon’s troops. When the French “Empereur” ordered the bombardment of Vienna in May, Beethoven took refuge in his brother’s cellar, wrapping his head in thick pillows to shield his sensitive ears from the noise of cannon fire. What, then, do all the military references in the Fifth Piano Concerto convey? The American scholar Leon Plantinga, author of a book on Beethoven’s concertos, interprets them metaphorically: “Thoughts of the military, that constant presence in Beethoven’s world, may have reminded him (and now us) of a generalized human struggle, and its heroic gestures pointed to a nobility of character required to prevail.”