Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4 in G, Op.58 (Lewis)

You’re probably not allowed to say this is the best concerto ever written, but if you did, who would actually bother to seriously contest that claim? I mean, really – the Op.58 is such a miraculous work. It’s kind of an impossible combination of the Waldstein and the last two piano sonatas – it has all the brightness and generosity of the former (semiquaver triplets!), and the lyrical, confessional qualities of the latter (the opening of this concerto, for instance, really seems to occupy the same emotional space as the opening of the Op.110, and the orchestra also gets some lovely contrapuntal writing). Plus the trills in here (and there are lots of them) are amazing – people say the trill reached its apotheosis in Beethoven’s late sonatas, but they make a pretty good case for themselves here.

There have been volumes written about the opening of this concerto, but it’s just one of the most moving things ever written. It’s not just that the piano opens with that intimate, improvised meditation (is there a more terrifying opening to a piano concerto? None really springs to mind) – it’s also how the orchestra enters immediately after in the key of B, not so much having modulated as colouring the piano melody with a kind of otherworldly harmonic brightness (you can even hear the orchestral entry as implying a Gmaj7♯5 kind of sound, which is wild). The whole first movement is packed full of incredible passages – the soaring lyricism of the 3rd theme, the magical entry of the piano, the rapt excursions of the development (7:39; 9:09), the hair-raising trill that ends the 1st movement cadenza (16:39). Structurally, it’s also very efficiently put together (another late-Beethoven trait); the opening’s 4-note pulse bookends the 1st movement, which is littered with almost unnoticeable callbacks to earlier material (compare 7:39 and 3:12). And then, of course, you have lots of fun textural stuff (the dissonances at 4:45) and harmonic innovation (the theme at 1:11 deceives at every turn).

The 2nd movement is the probably most emotionally concentrated movement in all Beethoven’s piano concerti – only 3 pages long, but a tight knot of despair tightly wedged between two luminous movements. It doesn’t really have a structure to speak of – instead, it’s really a series of dialogues between piano and strings (the rest of the orchestra remains silent throughout), with the piano and orchestra gradually converging on a kind of common language of grief. The agonizing trills in this movement will be re-purposed in the last movement to exhilarating effect.

The last movement opens with a deft trick – the theme enters with a repeated C chord that’s quickly established (when the F♯ arrives) to really be the IV of G in m.6. But when the piano enters, it introduces an F♮, confirming that we really *are* in C, before immediately modulating to G. This use of IV colour plays a big part in giving this movement its sunny lyricism – there’s also something a little funny in how often Beethoven builds into these massive G7 passages (25:17; 32:47) in order to prepare for the theme’s entry in C, only to immediately modulate away once C is reached. The first episode in this movement (24:29) is also pretty striking – it’s in two-part counterpoint, but the voices are spaced very far apart (another late-Beethovenism), and float above a cello pedal on D. There is also some lovely colouration with a ♭6, giving the passage a mystic breadth – plus the whole thing is followed up by some beautifully warm counterpoint in the orchestra, especially the woodwinds.

Lewis, accompanied by the BBCSO (under Belohlávek) puts in one of my favourite performances of this work. Because the Op.58 has become over time so wrapped up in associations of profundity/spirituality etc., many performers feel pressured into finding some kind of magic dust in the work (sometimes to great effect), but Lewis shows here that playing in an unassuming, expansive manner can work wonders too. I think this kind of playing is especially well-suited to the Op.58 because it has such a personal character – sure, the opening chords are notoriously hard to interpret, and you can spend hours figuring out how to voice and articulate them, but at the end of the day the most important thing is that they sound sincere, artifice-free, full of breath – and they are, after all that, just G major chords. It’s hard to pick out specific moments in Lewis’ playing that stand out – his eye is really on the big arc here, and although he doesn’t at all ignore Beethoven’s markings he doesn’t go out of his way to accentuate them either – this is very much in the “the music’s good enough to speak for itself” school of interpretation. Nonetheless, several things do stand out – the mystery in the first movement’s development, the violence of the trills in the second movement and stillness of the piano’s final entries, and the beautifully shaped episodes and fiery cadenza in the last.

[AshishXiangyiKumar]

(Little note: even more than the other piano concerti, and mostly because of its formal inventiveness, the 4th can be broken down in lots of different ways -- the stuff below reflects how I hear this work, but you may understand things differently!)

MVT I, Allegro moderato
Exposition I
00:00 – T1 enters like a prayer in the piano, containing a 4-repeated-note motif (with rhythmic emphasis on the last note) that will pervade the whole work. Call this (m.repeat). T1 is immediately repeated in B in the strings, modulating quickly around the circle of 5ths to return to G. The orchestra then takes up T1 in the form of (m.repeat) in stretto at 0:37, creating some gorgeous counterpoint and passing dissonances between the woodwinds and lower strings. The passage climaxes at 0:58, followed immediately by the most dissonant-sounding set of root position tonic/dominant chords ever written (1:00).
01:11 – T2. This modulating theme has a clever harmonic structure. It contains 3 phrases in Em, Bm, and F♯m, but each begins very deceptively – the first with the iv chord (Am) and the second and third on the Neapolitan (C and G).
01:36 – Transition, using (m.repeat).
01:58 – T3. Soaring. Very slyly based on mm.3-5.
02:21 – T4. Cadential theme. Recollection of T1/(m.repeat) at 2:40.
Exposition II
02:54 – Piano enters with what is nearly an improvisation, using (m.repeat).
03:27 – T1, shared between orchestra and piano. Bursts into brilliant passagework at 3:44, with (m.repeat) in the orchestra.
04:02 – A new theme appears in B♭, a aching gulf between the long arc of its melody and the subterranean rumble of the bass, before disappearing like a vision. Call this (T.magic). More sparking filigree in the piano, leading into
04:36 – T5 in D (you can view this as the first real entry of the second theme group, which was left incomplete in the opening ritornello). At 4:45, a gently dissonant variant enters – this is very cleverly orchestrated so that the bassoon sounds like it’s resolving the dissonance of the (lower) chromatic neighbour tone in the piano as soon as it enters.
04:54 – Transition, with (m.repeat) in orchestra, and glowing passagework in the piano.
05:10 – T2, with the piano entering the provide lovely counterpoint to the oboe. Then, while the piano continues with its semiquavers, (m.repeat) sneaks in in the orchestra (5:36).
06:02 – T3 stated climactically in the orchestra. At 6:34 a quieter, lyrical variant enters in the piano.
06:59 – T4
Development
07:28 – Piano enters eerily as it did in Expo II, now in Fm.
07:39 – A mysterious series of falling scales, written to sound rhythmically free. Based off 3:12 (!). Call this (m.descent).
08:02 – Dramatic sequential development, combining (m.repeat) and (m.descent) in the orchestra, while the piano takes on a rising arpeggio. (The piano here reminds me a bit of the Appassionata, actually.) This sequence climaxes at 8:28 in a triplet semiquaver passage recalling 5:03.
09:05 – Having arrived in the distant land of C♯m, the piano plays a rapt descending figure, while (m.repeat) is plucked out in the cellos. Modulates to E.
09:25 – Transition, featuring scales reminiscent of T4. At 9:47 the dominant preparation is reached. The climactic bar at 9:56 uses the same rhythm as T3.
Recapitulation
9:59 – T1 in the piano, now vast, warm, encompassing. Moves into B again, while the piano provides delicate triplet semiquaver accompaniment. After this, we get another statement of T1, but now in the form used by Exposition II. We suddenly move in E♭, wherein
10:54 – (T.magic) re-appears for the second and last time, collapsing eventually into a cascade of violent thirds.
11:23 – T5, now in G.
11:57 – T2
12:49 – T3, including the triplet variant.
13:48 – Cadenza. Opens with an extended improvisation on (m.repeat). At 14:25, T5 enters in B♭, and unspools into a sunny variation before (m.repeat) returns at 15:13 in a more regimented form, developing into an ecstatic climax (with strong Waldstein vibes T3 enters in A♭ at 16:05, moving into G. At 16:40 – we reach an unbearably intense trill on the supertonic, which relaxes into a scale.
17:18 – T3, with the piano RH especially free.
17:46 – Final recollection of T1, before (m.repeat) closes.

MVT II, Andante con moto
Part I
18:32 – Orchestral statement. Brutal, clipped. There’s a kind of gravitational pull to it, always pulling the line down.
18:46 – Piano answer. Meek, subdued.
19:13 – The call/response pattern continues. The orchestra always harsh, the piano some mixture of consoling/tender/grieving.
Part II
20:57 – Piano enters with a high lyrical line that drops gradually.
21:27 – A trill enters, rising by thirds and growing more desperate. The LH enters with bitter chromaticism (the RH answering with a pointed appoggiatura) before it joints with RH in a double trill.
22:26 – The final set of calls/responses, the orchestra playing its only quiet passages and chords in the movement.

MVT III, Rondo: vivace
(Exposition)
23:22 – Theme, entering on the deceptive IV chord. The orchestral statement comprises 3 motifs in rapid succession – the opening rhythm (m.rhythm) in mm.1-2, a rising arpeggio (m.arpegg) in mm.3-4, and a fall (m.fall) in mm.5-6. The piano takes the orchestra’s deceptive entre a step further by actually entering in the wrong key of C (swapping its role as IV for I), accompanied by a single lyrical cello.
24:00 – Transition 1
24:29 – Episode 1. Luminous 2-part counterpoint.
24:57 – Transition 2. At 25:15 the dominant of C enters and sticks around for a longish bit, because this is _Beethoven_, goddammit.
25:47 – Theme
26:26 – Transition 1, moving via Gm into E♭.
(Development = Episode 2)
26:36 – Dramatic arpeggios in the piano, while the woodwinds interrupt with snatches of the theme (m.fall). The big arching arpeggios in the strings are derived from (m.arpegg).
27:07 – Triplet thirds in the piano outlining dim7 chords, with the orchestra supplying yet more material from the theme (m.rhythm + m.arpegg).
27:46 – Recollection of episode 1 in G.
28:13 – Transition 2. At 28:45 the cellos/violas play a beautifully muted variant of the theme. At 29:24, there is a cadenza “ad libitum” – so some space for improvisation!
(Recapitulation)
29:49 – Theme, now taken first by the piano in delicate broken octaves in (m.rhythm).
30:08 – Transition 1, diverted into a lovely modulation to F♯.
30:26 – Episode 1. After the melody’s first phrase is stated, the oboe and bassoon hitch an F♯ up a semitone to G, which then becomes the dominant of C – one of the nicest tritone modulations I’ve heard. The second phrase is interrupted by the woodwinds playing a highly compressed variant of the theme (30:38), after which Episode 1’s melody transfers to the cellos, which pass it gradually upward, while the piano burbles scales above.
31:06 – Cadenza. Begins with a propulsive extension of the preceding orchestral phrase, before developing Episode 1’s material. At 31:34, Transition 2 makes an entry and is diverted into two climactic rising arpeggios.
31:50 – An upward explosion of trills, recalling the series of 3 rising trills heard in Mvt II. As is typical for Beethoven, the final triple trill on the F♯ refuses to resolve correctly, moving to an F♮ underpinned by dim7 harmony. This invites an orchestra phrase which gradually steers us back to the G, which heralds to
(Coda)
32:07 – Theme, now taken by the clarinets/bassoons before being handed to the piano (which starts a nice stretto with the woodwinds).
32:29 – Some pretty scalar material harmonised as Beethoven’s favourite 6/3 chords, leading to
32:40 – Yet another exhilarating set of 3 rising trills, slowing into measured triplets, then quavers. Takes a violent swerve into C via a G7 chord, which revs the orchestra up for one final triumphant statement of the theme. A G/A/B oscillation in the piano closes.

[timward]

man, Beethoven had a hell of a run when he got into the Opus Fifties. Check this out:
op. 53: Waldstein sonata (#21)
op. 54: Sonata #22 (well, that's a miss, although a lot of people like it more than I do)
op. 55: Eroica symphony
op. 56: Triple Concerto
op. 57: Appassionata sonata (#23)
op. 58: this masterwork
op. 59: the 3 Razumovsky quartets
op. 60: 4th symphony
op. 61: Violin Concerto

That's quite a sequence.

[nunterz]

Today I realized I can't even recall Betthoven's piano concerti apart from No. 5, so I went through all of them. The first accords all snapped entire memory boxes open.. It feels like seeing long lost friends and reliving a ton of old memories together... It's an ethereal experience...

And indeed, nothing compares to the 4th... now I remember the very first time listened to it 25 years ago...

[AshishXiangyiKumar]

00:00 - Mvt 1
18:32 - Mvt 2
23:22 - Mvt 3

[RicAbapo]

I hear Schubert a lot in this concerto — probably why I love this concerto so much!

[aperson]

I'm proud to say that this is the best concerto ever written.

[mwong]

Best piano concerto ever written. Best song ever written.

[JoUllo-rd]

❤All Beethoven's concertos are beautiful! The orchestration is wonderful. I particularly love the way the 'motif' travels from one type of instrument to another. Beethoven was great! He still is.
He is immortal in his music.

[ulysse__]

This is by far my favorite Beethoven concerto, and a lot of it is due to its - I'm not sure if it's a word - lyricism. It feels like the entire piece sings tales of ancient times.

[pyboppybop]

The best accolade I ever heard about Beethoven, who agonized after every note he ever wrote, "It's like God came down and said, 'This is the perfect note here.'"

[lvbdevinelove]

Utterly breathtaking. I had the most intense tingles in my head it was so moving. Only Beethoven’s music can do that to me. Thank you Big Beet. The world is a better place because of you.

[FloydMaxwell]

Couldn't agree more. Best concerto ever written. Brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it (for forty years now).

[spiderwebb]

Beethoven must be the only composer that can sound like Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Prokofiev, Sibelius and Shostakovich within the same piece. I will never forget having the privilege to perform the complete Beethoven concertos with Paul Lewis at the piano.

[sepantanikpendar]

so beautiful, one of the best piano concerto in the world, magneficent

[carlhopkinson]

This concerto is definitely in the Top 3 Greats.

[dankoppel]

A piece of absolute pure genius: Beethoven unleashed. Romantic is now here to stay. Classical is in the past.

[PepperWilliams_songcovers]

Beethoven took BACH to the next level and beyond. 195 years later proves unequivocally, that Beethoven has 'staying power'. PURE GENIUS!

[mrroneill]

Bravo Beethoven! Thanks for uploading. ❤️🎹🎼🎵🎶👏🇮🇪☘️

[movieman]

Captures Beethoven’s struggle... loud against the soft...

[lionelmartin]

Thank you so much for posting this! The second theme of the first movement gives me goosebumps every time, just through its pure beauty!