Pianist: Robert Levin
Allegro con brio (C minor) 00:00
Largo (E major) 16:03
Rondo. Allegro - Presto (C minor) 25:50
The earliest ideas for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Op 37, appear in sketches from around 1796, but the work remained undeveloped for a time, and an almost complete lack of surviving sketches leaves the main period of composition uncertain. Beethoven probably worked on it mainly in 1799-1800, intending to perform it at his benefit concert in April 1800. He did not complete it in time, however, and had to perform a different concerto (probably No 1) instead. Nevertheless, he reached the end of the work in his autograph score that year, as is clear from his handwriting: the final double bar is of a type he ceased using after 1801, and other handwriting features also suggest 1800. He hastily completed the work in 1803, inserting the year at the head of the score-which has misled some scholars into believing that most of the work was composed then. It was ready in time for another benefit concert, on 5 April, but only just, as is evident from a report by Ignaz von Seyfried, who turned pages for Beethoven at the performance. Seyfried recalled that many of the pages were almost blank, with just a few Egyptian hieroglyphs comprehensible only to Beethoven. Final revisions were made some time after the performance, including the addition of pedal marks and the exploitation of a wider keyboard compass than originally planned. The work was published in 1804, with a dedication to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was a great admirer of Beethoven, as well as a composer and pianist.
The key of C minor was frequently used by Beethoven-notably in his fifth symphony-and the stormy moods associated with this key are frequently in evidence here, alongside gentler passages such as the beautiful second theme and the profoundly tender adagio, written in the remote key of E major. The cadenza that Beethoven wrote for Archduke Rudolph in 1809 is admirably fitted to the rest of the first movement, incorporating the stormy first theme and the lyrical second theme, along with some dazzling piano figuration. The concerto is often compared with Mozart’s C minor piano concerto (K491), and both begin with a portentous unison passage. But when Beethoven conceived and composed the work, Mozart’s was hardly known, since it was not published until 1800. Thus there is little, if any, direct influence from Mozart’s work, although the similarities show how thoroughly Beethoven had absorbed Mozart’s style.
The finale, once again in rondo form, is back in C minor, but it unexpectedly veers into E major towards the end, recalling the slow movement in a surprisingly tender passage. The nervy character of the C minor theme returns, but after a short cadenza the music bursts into a joyful C major (as does the end of the fifth symphony), with the theme transformed into a lively dance, as the pessimism heard earlier gives way to an exuberant and optimistic ending.