Rudolf Buchbinder plays Beethoven
The illustrious pianist and conductor, Rudolf Buchbinder, performs a selection of piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven at Venice's Gran Teatro La Fenice, a remarkable venue with superb acoustics for keyboard-based concerts. The programme opens with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19, followed by Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58, and Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, respectively. With accompaniment provided by the highly regarded La Fenice Orchestra, these concerts will delight fans of the great German composer, particularly devotees of his earlier works.
Beethoven's Second piano concerto premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna, sometime in March 1795 although he is thought to have begun writing it several years before that. At the time of its debut, the composer was just 24 years of age and the official premiere was one of his earliest appearances to a wider public. Beethoven probably performed it privately before this time and may have adapted it. Certainly, a new finale was written for the concerto which was first performed in 1798 in Prague, the version which subsequently went on to be published in December 1801.
Beethoven's Fourth piano concerto follows, a piece that was written over the course of 1805 and 1806. It was first performed by the composer himself to the public at the Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808. However, an earlier recital of it had been given by Beethoven at a private performance that had been arranged at the home of Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz at which, incidentally, his famous Fourth Symphony also premiered. Beethoven wrote two cadenzas for this concerto and various others have also been arranged including those by Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, among others.
The First piano concerto by Beethoven was actually written after the second, the piece that opens this concert. Often considered by musical historians to have been first performed on 18 December 1795, the date of its premiere is not fully established and it could be later. Nevertheless, it was revised in 1800 and published the following year before the second which accounts for its name and lower opus number. Like the second piano concerto, this one offers insights into Beethoven's early career when he was composing in the classical style before his romantic period.
Rudolf Buchbinder is an Austrian pianist who has performed all over the world. While conducting from the piano, he has recorded Beethoven's piano concertos with both the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and, later, with the Vienna Philharmonic.