Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" & Egmont Overture

Featuring

Johannes Walter
Alfred Brenner
European Festival Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Composer Biography

Ludwig van Beethoven's father, Johann van Beethoven, was a singer in the chapel but denied his son a sound general education, attempting to exploit his undeveloped musical gifts.

Composer Biography

Beethoven visited Vienna in 1787 hoping for lessons from Mozart, but returned home to Bonn due to his mother's illness, after which his father's drunken habits led to his dismissal.

Composition History

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, known as the "Emperor" Concerto, was completed in 1809 and dedicated to Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven's pupil and a member of the imperial family.

Composition History

Beethoven's Egmont Overture and incidental music were composed for a 1810 production of Goethe's prose tragedy Egmont, which tells the story of Count Egmont's rebellion against Spanish rulers in the Netherlands.

Composition History

The title "the Emperor" for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 was not given by the composer himself, though it has helped to impress its qualities on audiences.

Compositional Technique

Beethoven built musical structures of a massiveness previously unknown into classical forms, extending the technical possibilities of the pianoforte and creating symphonies of bewildering grandeur.

Composer Biography

Beethoven's life dramatically changed due to his deafness, which became evident as early as 1798, making public performance impossible and driving him into solitude.