Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C, Op. 56 / Violin Concerto Fragment in C, Woo 5 / Piano Concerot, Woo 4

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This CD includes two interesting concertos, "Violin Concerto in C" and "Piano Concerto in Es". Both concertoes are vivid and youthful. They are likely to Hydon, but we can find young Beethoven in them. Solos and Orchestra are also good. I recommend you listen this CD at once.

In addition to the famous triple concerto (played with much gusto by the Sima Trio and the accompanying orchestra), this CD features two rare gems by Beethoven: the piano concerto, sometimes dubbed "#0", WoO 4, composed when LvB was 13 years old (1884), and the first movement of his first serious attempt at a violin concerto, WoO 5, composed when he was 19-21 (1890-1892).

The WoO 4 piano concerto survives only in the piano part, plus some orchestra tutti and orchestration indications, so the present version is the one arranged in 1961 by Willy Hess, of the Hess Beethoven-catalog fame. It's a beautiful piece in the spirit of High Classical, almost reminiscent of Mozart but, according to scholars such as Barry Cooper, probably more inspired by the concertos of LvB's first real teacher, Neefe. Hess's rescontruction of the orchestration is rather wonderful from start to finish. There're a few passages, esp. in the 2nd movement, that sound like a later Beethoven, but overall, this is a fabulous piano concerto that combines the mature Mozart and the young Beethoven.

The WoO 5 violin concerto survives only in the first 259 bars of the first movement; it was evidently completed and performed but the rest of the manuscript score was unfortunately lost. So, for the first 259 bars (about 8 minutes of music in this recording, but with some "tightenings" by the conductor in the 1st tutti's 2nd group), you have the complete score as written by LvB, then the rest was arranged by a later, Spanish composer/violinist. Some recordings only include the part completed by LvB, i.e., the authentic Beethoven score, but this present recording features the "entire" movement, so as you listen past the 8:00 timestamp, you should bear in mind that the rest of the movement is no longer Beethoven.

In any case, WoO 5 is another wonderful early Beethoven work, clearly modeled after Mozart, who composed all his five violin concertos at age 19. The violin solo writing here is rather virtuosic but not overly difficult or "technical" (i.e., few difficult double-stops). What's striking is the violin solo part is tightly integrated with the orchestral accompaniment, a trait that is brought to perfection in Beethoven's 4th and 5th piano concertos as well as his canonical violin concerto in D, Op. 61. I think the person who completed the movement did a pretty good job with the rest of the development and the recapitualation, making this work very enjoyable. (The conductor on the present recording decided to omit the cadenza because he thought it was too un-Beethoven-like.)

This is a great CD that features two works composed by the young LvB that unfortunately have not survived in whole. These works deserved to be heard by every LvB lover.