Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.2 in Bb. Op.19 (Helmchen)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2020
- The Op.19 is the only one of Beethoven’s piano concertos that can properly be called a work in the High Classical tradition - it was mostly written between 1787 and 1789, when Beethoven was in his teens and well before he started work on what is now known as the 1st Piano Concerto, deploys a small orchestra without any timpani, trumpets, or clarinets, and uses (especially in the first movement) a lot of figuration that could pretty reasonably be called Mozart- or Haydn-like. But it’s also remarkable that even at this early stage, Beethoven was producing moments which really chafed against the classical idiom. The most obvious of this is the rapt “con gran espressione” passage in the slow movement (20:37), which seems to draw a line straight to late Beethoven, but there’s also the lyrical flight at 17:39, and all those accents in the last movement aggressively misplaced in the middle of the beat (22:42; 23:58, 24:55). Even the first movement, which has a typically neat Mozartean structure and a Haydnish profusion of thematic material, features a bunch of unusually intense gestures, such as extended chromatic colour (4:30), the ominous bass oscillation at the end of the development (7:49), and the obsessive diminished 7th harmony at 7:16 - let alone the whole cadenza, which was written down long after most of this was composed.
As usual, Helmchen delivers a superb performance - he really is just incapable of generating an uninteresting texture, and his ability to pull off even the most fleeting and subtle variations of articulation is unparalled among the Beethoven concerto recordings I’ve come across. Some highlights: the rarely-observed but lovely pianissimo at 5:17, the burbling LH at 7:06, the gorgeous slurs at 17:26, the agogic accent on the first note of the syncopated phrase at 22:42, and the way that intensely dramatic LH counterpoint leaps into the foreground at 25:28. - เพลง
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MVT I, Allegro con brio
Exposition I
00:00 - Theme 1. Opens with two motifs: a march-like dotted descending arpeggio (m.march), followed by a short lyrical phrase (m.lyr). At 0:15, a motif comprising 3 repeated notes following by an upwards slur enters (m.repeat), and at 0:42, a chromatic staggered descent (m.chr). After a shift to Db, there enters
1:11 - Theme 1*. This sounds like a typical second theme, but is really a variant of (m.lyr). Theme 1 proper returns at 1:45.
Exposition II
02:32 - The piano enters with a short 5-note descending melodic fragment in the upper registers (m.frag). The phrases which immediately follow borrow (m.lyr)’s rhythm. The scale at 2:47 references (m.frag), while the orchestral interlude at 2:50 references (m.repeat), by having three emphasised beats on the same note.
02:57 - Theme 1, in the piano, diverted into (m.repeat - extending the orchestra’s variation on the idea), and modulating. At 3:17, a move to the dominant of F begins.
03:31 - Theme 2 proper, introducing the second complex. In its 4th measure, a reference to (m.repeat). the closing measures at 3:58 use (m.frag).
04:09 - Theme 3, cool, ethereal variant of Theme 2, in Db. Its tail contains (m.repeat) at 4:23 in the strings. At 4:29, it radically extends (m.chr), and eventually leads into a running piano passage (5:08) built entirely off an augmented/trimmed (m.frag), until reaching the cadential trill at 5:29.
05:31 - Theme 1 in F, now tucked into the bass of the tutti.
Development
05:56 - The piano enters much as it did in Expo II.
06:12 - Piano slips into Gm, while (m.lyr) is taken up by the strings.
06:27 - Theme 1* in Eb. At 6:48, yet another reference to (m.lyr).
06:51 - (m.repeat) in the woodwinds, interrupted by piano arpeggios.
07:06 - (m.repeat) now moves into the piano, eventually taking over the texture entirely (7:12).
07:29 - Theme 3 (recalling 4:16), incorporating a lot of colour by borrowing the iv from the parallel minor.
07:49 - Dominant prolongation with lots of lovely minor 9th colour, while the orchestra plays (m.march).
Recapitulation
07:56 - Theme 1, with the piano entering at (m.repeat). The passage at 8:21 incorporate the piano arpeggios from the development.
08:39 - Theme 2, in Bb.
09:16 - Theme 3
10:40 - Dramatic tutti combining (m.march), (m.repeat), and (m.chr - 10:47) leading to the
10:59 - Cadenza. Opens with a fughetta based off (m.march), which at 11:33 leads to a dramatic F pedal, over which the RH plays a version of (m.march) which has been stripped down to little more than its dotted rhythm. (m.lyr) enters at 11:44, the LH harmonies under it gradually growing restless and eventually incorporating (m.lyr). Eventually (m.lyr) is presented in augmentation and is joined by its inversion in the LH, creating an intense running passage (12:08). At 12:19 (m.march), now in Eb, enters majestically in the LH, but is quickly diverted into a kaleidoscopic descending passage that drops through the circle of 5ths (12:31). At 12:19 (m.march) asserts itself as a series of double-note broken arpeggios in the RH, the LH rising as the RH falls, before the hands switch roles. At 13:02, a rumbling measured trill on Bb, over which the RH plays counterpoint which combines (m.march) in both its original and augmented forms.
13:42 - Theme 1 closes.
MVT II, Adagio
14:02 - A section.
15:35 - B section. Not so much a contrasting melody as much as a sort of semi-free figural complex. 16:41 quotes a harmonically modified version of the A theme (A*).
17:34 - A section. Melody first taken by the woodwinds, until the piano enters at 18:06 at the emotional peak of the melody. The orchestral tutti at 18:19 quotes material from the B section, as do the piano entries which follow. After an lovely passage in triplet semiquavers, we arrive at the
19:44 - Coda. Begins in a kind of harmonic wilderness, before three ecstatic rising trills (20:01) lead into A*. This builds into a 6/4 which looks like in would lead into a cadenza. Instead - in a wonderful moment which leaps decades ahead to late Beethoven, we get a rapt recitative (20:38), marked “con gran espressione”. The orchestra eventually interpolates the A theme’s opening phrase, which also closes the movement.
MVT III, Rondo: Molto allegro
22:42 - Theme, with fun accents in the middle of each beat.
23:06 - Transition 1.
23:32 - Episode 1, in F.
23:58 - Transition 2.
24:24 - Theme, modulating to Gm.
24:55 - Episode 2, starting in Gm but wandering through many keys. Very earwormish, and, like the theme, misplaces the accents in the middle of the beat. The orchestral interruptions borrow from Transition 1. At 25:22, having arriving in the remote Bbm, the syncopation is pushed even earlier in the melody, which is now harmonised in thirds notes and joined by sudden counterpoint in the LH (25:27).
25:45 - Theme.
26:25 - Episode 1, in Bb.
27:21 - Theme, returning in a pretty ridiculous way: it’s in the wrong key, and its defining syncopation has been “corrected” so that the accents now fall on the beat. It now sounds meek, or even a bit confused. After a rather tongue-in-cheek modulation the theme finds its footing at 27:31.
27:39 - Coda, laden with virtuoso figuration. At 28:00 a new closing theme is introduced, built off the second measure of the rondo theme. The piano dies off via an extended double trill, before the orchestra closes.
Wow. Thank you very much. This listening guide is gold. +1 subscribe 👏
This is a pretty spectacular explanation of Beethoven’s genius virtuosity and ability to make anything work. Thank you. He’s taking his audience through the majestic, the virtuous, the ridiculous, to the sublime. Confirming he can make anything work.
In his teens when composing this and 24 when he presented it in Vienna, your analysis allows us a guide through his deep forest of musical capacities and beautiful impossibilities.
okay you gotta admire the dedication to write all this
Thank you for the anaylsis!! I got so confused between which one is the first and the second theme!!
What you called "theme 1*" IS theme 2. And even what you called "theme 3" is also part of theme 2. Notice that "theme 1*" and "theme 3" sound very similar to each other.
00:00 - Mvt 1
14:01 - Mvt 2
22:42 - Mvt 3
It is as if one gets a master’s degree of information!
if Mozart heard this piece he would suddenly realize that this genius is now doing what I do. Just as imaginative and structured. Just as brilliant. At this point Beethoven has taken the baton from Mozart and is going ahead. It's a continuum. Of course what comes later on is very different.
Marvelous, thank you for this beautiful concerto, precisely interpreted with a valuable score sincronized.
Ah! What a beautiful second movement. How musically expressive, and in what an touching way does the piano enter into it, cantabile style.
Fantastic playing. Every phrase is filled with a persuasive intention, and the left-hand definition is incredibly vivid.
Thanks to you, now I'm listening to his Beethoven Piano Concerto no.1(new released CD). It's amazing! He's so close to my ideal op.15, and especially I love his Beethoven-like dynamic very much. Thank you Kumar!
I love the second movement so much. I find it very evocative.
I like this concert so much ❤️
Your explanation of the score is brilliant! Thank you so very much! ❤️
Following your comment, Uchida said that Beethoven's late was all there at the begining of his compositions, that one can hear it already in his first opuses.
Superb performance. And thanks for score.
Thank you for the program notes. I've learned many parts of this concerto (roughly half - didn't like the 2nd movement!), and never knew what you stated about it actually being written before #1. It kind of makes more sense this way, since the 3rd movement of #1 presents what is essentially the birth of ragtime as its secondary theme, and I doubt even Beethoven wouldn't start out of the blocks with something like that.
Beautiful Beethoven Concerto for Piano and Orchestra #2.
27:13 I love this key change. It reminds me of a similar one at the end of his Piano Sonata No. 3, fourth movement
Congrats on 80k
Excellent !!
Wow 20:40... he plays in such a marvelous way with the pedal and the resonance 😍
I like this better than the 1st Concerto, especially the finale, which so joyous and energetic and never fails to put a smile on my face.
It's not as great as 3, 4, or 5 but that's a pretty damn high bar to clear.
Intereseting - Beethoven himself said something to the effect of it "not being his best".
Exciting!
20:59 - that A-flat is everything... such poignancy in one stray note (phrase starting 20:38)
Love the voicing in the LH @25:27
Beethoven composed this concerto before he decided to break with the strictly classical style which composers such as Mozart and Haydn were obliged to follow according with the wishes of their employers. His compositions gave rise to the romantic period which was adopted by future musicians.
There is something very Mozartian about this piece
Dan Ordel If you played the first five minutes to someone with basic knowledge of the Classical era and asked them to name the composer, ten to one they'd say Mozart. But then you reach the cadenza a few minutes later and it's so, so Beethoven.
Definitely not. The introduction alone is not Mozartean. It is not coherent; it just doesn't flow. And it just sounds strange - musically totally ineffective. Like random bits and pieces cobbled together.
cangjie12 I think what you describe as incoherent is you mislabeling Beethoven’s unique harmonic language and developmental structure. Maybe it is not Mozartian, but that is because it is already Beethoven’s own style, which did wonders for the music world. Give it another listen, with composition, music history, and theory in mind.
@@NFStopsnuf but that's the point: that it's not mozartean
@@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co probably because the cadenza was composed years after the rest of the concerto
boa tarde A. X. Kumar, na escuta ouvindo. obrigada.
First movement just sounds like a masterclass in 'How to write a Mozartian piano concerto better than Mozart.'
Also, Schubert's D960 4th movement at 4:31
Outside of the opening theme, they hardly sound alike. Not in their harmony, the way the themes are developed, or how one section flows to the next. As for which is "better," well, the relationship in this concerto between the soloist and orchestral tutti is considerably dumbed down compared to Mozart's late piano concertos, so I guess that would be considered an improvement for some people.
24:55 best part
Truly agreeeeeeeed
The reason it's called "Number 2" is because it was the second to be published. But it was written before what we now call Number 1.
But wasn't Bach already dead?
Hmmm... does the fisrt movement cadenza sound a bit like the Hammerklavier? Also B flat major...
12:08 Beethoven used that to show his skills to Mozart in 1787... After some years, Beethoven collect somes sketches and made the Cadenza of his Second piano concerto
How could you possibly know that?
@@leonhardeuler6811 Because that concerto was made between 1787 and 1789... There isn't trumpets, clarinettes and timpani in this piece, that was very usual in classical concertos. At that time, Beethoven was a promising young man, he played the piano devilishly so that no one could reach him. Mozart praised their extremely fast trills and their exceptional scales. You can find everything that I said in this concerto
@@PEDRO_boaro Where did Mozart praise this concerto? proof?
@@leonhardeuler6811 Mozart praise Beethoven's skills on piano
@@PEDRO_boaro There is literrally no proof Mozart ever heard of this concerto
Oh...7:30 so poignant - So touching.
25:23 The first time human being creat this accent
When is this concerto located in Beethoven's sonata timeline?
I'm guessing around before Sonata 7-8 or something?
Before or after Pathethique?
The bulk of this work is in fact done between 1787 and 1789, with a finale written in 1796, which is about the same time as his first three piano sonatas (Op.2). OP wrote this fact above. I am just pointing out the timeline. Source: Wikipedia.
after. though it may have actually been written before. it is listed as opus 19. while pathetique is opus 13. but again it's difficult to know how long he worked on this piece
@@bradleyscarffpiano2921 it's listed op19 only because Beethoven decided to publish it after the first piano concerto. Beethoven himself had performed this concerto no.2 around 1795 in Vienna several times.
@@tien-linyang3195 Thanks for the correction :)
@@counterpoints_ The finale written in 1796 was not used in the final publication.
Do you have a plan for uploading No.3?
I 00:00
II 14:02
III 22:42
hype
Though not as good as the greater ones that are 3, 4 and 5, this concerto still deserves more attention.
I enjoy it more than 3 tbh. But your point still stands
I love it. As well as 1, 4, 5 and 3. Awesome
I don't understand why that's the least liked of all 5 LVB's piano concerto.
Because it's sadly overshadowed by the great 3, 4 and 5.
23:29
14:01
Why does this have three flats, if it is in B flat, which is supposed to have just two?
In the cadenza you will find the origin of the "rag" in opus 111
I guess the third movement should have made a lot of romantic composers pay tribute to its scherzo-esque character...
Ga
10:59
2:22
28:29 the pianist is playing here? i thought it was a tutti part
It was a common practice in the 18th century for the soloist to play throughout all the tutti sections of the concerto by realising the bass line.
Who composed Cadenza? I don't think Beethoven wrote it.
Beethoven did later on in life. He style changed a lot between composing the concerto and the cadenza
ist das von J.S.Bach oder von Mozart?🤔
Beethoven.
@CHEN RI HUI Moe bro he was joking
Whose cadenza is this?
I think Beethoven. But he did it later on in life. His style changed a lot.
u
Although I really love Beethoven, I have to say that this piece bores me beyond death. I've been open minded, I've listened to it 8 times by now, but the more I listen to it, the more it bores me...
What’s a piece by Beethoven that does not bore you? Besides the obvious ones (his 3rd, moonlight sonata, 9th, etc...)
@@lennynicotra5883 Apassionata, Pathetique Sonata, Waldstein Sonata, Hammerklavier Sonata, Sonata No. 32, Concertos no 3, 4, 5, and the 5th symphony. Just to name a few off the top of my head.
@@lucasdelliosiv7493 Do you still find it boring?
@@Lordran__ Yes
@@lucasdelliosiv7493 even the second movement? I can understand not enjoying the first movement and maybe even the third but the second is amazing. Then again I did play this concerto so my view on it might be different.
12:21