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BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO No. 5

IN E FLAT Op. 73, “EMPEROR”

The brilliant and spacious concerto generally known as the “Emperor” was composed in 1809. It marks the culmination of the great series of ‘“‘public” works, which largely occupied the middle years of Beethoven’s career. After it comes the Seventh Symphony, in which the fanatical assertion of the power of the human will to master chaos carries Beethoven to the verge of madness, and the Eighth Symphony, which is a sort of comic but violent self-portrait of the composer of the Seventh; and after that comes the beginning of a new kind of music and the attainment of a new serenity and resolution. But here, in this work, Beethoven is still the extrovert artist, addressing society in lofty but finite terms.

The “Emperor” simplest display elements, elevated to grandeur by the force of Beethoven’s creative imagination. It is as if he deliberately set out to show what he could achieve with the most commonplace material. The magnificent rhetorical opening sets the mood and style: a fortissimo chord of E flat for the orchestra, followed by a volley of arpeggios, trills, and scales for the soloist. The process is repeated over subdominant and dominant chords. Then the orchestra launches into a glittering review of virtually the entire material that piano and orchestra are to discuss in the course of the movement. Scale passages are prominent and also arpeggios, emphasised by trumpets and drums. The main theme includes a triplet turn and a martial dotted rhythm, both of great importance. A regal tutti leads to the march-like second subject, which begins in the minor in short, staccato notes, then broadens into the major with majestic horns and timpani. Two more themes may be mentioned: a flowing melody made up of descending four-note scales, given to the woodwind, and a tranquil theme on the violins, which brings the orchestral introduction to a close, before the martial dotted rhythm heralds the return of the pianist, on a rising chromatic scale.

The development section (again introduced by a rising chromatic scale) is concerned with the main theme. There is a ruminative discussion of the triplet turn and its pendant arpeggio by the woodwind, while the piano weaves round them the lightest network of semiquavers. Then the martial dotted rhythm intervenes and, accompanied by vehement arpeggios on the piano, works up to a powerful climax, releasing a torrent of octaves from the soloist. The climax subsides, giving way to tranquillity; but the triplet turn

_ remains active, first (in the cellos and basses) furtively

is made up to a remarkable extent of the |

side 1:

1. Allegro

side 2:

839 794 LY

2. Adagio un poco mosso— 3. Rondo (Allegro)

STEPHEN bESHOP, Piano

London Symphony Orchestra

Conducted by COLIN DAVIS

leading the tonality back to the home key, then setting in motion a crescendo which takes the apparently motionless music in a few thrilling bars to a triumphant restatement of the rhetorical opening of the work.

The recapitulation is an irresistible progress, until a series of orchestral flourishes which appear to herald the usual cadenza. The pianist begins, but just as he seems to be embarking on a further elaboration of the second subject, the horns calmly enter and take it over, and we are in for another and still more splendid restatement of the exposition from the second subject onwards, ending as before with the tranquil violin theme and the martial dotted rhythm. Once more the piano’s rising chromatic scale is heard. For a moment the music remains poised, with soft, dappled trills on the piano over a pedal E flat on the horns. Then it plunges forward, all arpeggios from the soloist and dotted rhythm from the orchestra, to its resplendent conclusion.

The beatiful Adagio (in the remote key of B major) takes us into another world. Like the Andante of the G major piano concerto (No. 4), it has the character of an extended intermezzo, linking on to the finale in a most original and dramatic way. The main melody breathes an air of holy calm; it is given mainly to the strings (violins muted). The

piano introduces a more rhapsodical but equally rapt theme. For a moment there is a return to the declamatory manner of the first movement; then the tension subsides,

and the piano repeats the main melody in decorated form. Finally flutes, clarinets, and bassoons play it once more, to

a rippling accompaniment of semiquavers on the piano. The magical sounds gradually die away into silence, and the music comes to rest on a low B. There is a sudden change of colour, and the B turns into B flat. The piano tries out, softly to itself, a new theme on an arpeggio of E flat, in a rhythm which seems to be forming itself in the void left by

the Adagio, while the strings listen in some puzzlement and pluck a helpful chord or two. Having found the theme satisfactory, the piano abruptly breaks into the finale. The theme is notable for the syncopated rhythm of its first two bars, which brings it in four great springs to the top of the phrase. When the orchestra jubilantly joins in, a dotted rhythm is generated which is again to play a vital role in the development of the music.

The pianist, like an inspired improviser, takes the main theme through an adventurous succession of keys, with a

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dazzling variety of decorative invention. The orchestra is confined to dutifully repeating the dotted rhythm while the piano gambols and scintillates; but when the piano pauses for breath on a trill, the violins slyly recall the last bars of the slow movement, and we are back at the beginning again, with a full-scale restatement. The dotted rhythm now becomes still more prominent. First it is bandied about between woodwind and soloist; then, softly tapped out by the timpanist, it achieves the most unexpected stroke of all, a long, mysterious diminuendo which momentarily subdues the music’s animal spirits. Yet even here the piano’s exuberance cannot be entirely repressed, as we hear from the quiet but muscular runs which express the wonderful sense of leonine power and physical well-being that is at the heart of this Olympian work. During the lull the music has been gathering itself for a final spring. There is a sudden uprush of scales on the piano, followed by the orchestra’s last, exultant arpeggios, with the theme’s syncopations hammered out fortissimo.

David Cairns

Stephen Bishop

Stephen Bishop was born in the United States of Yugoslav parents in 1940. He was educated and trained in music in San Francisco and at the age of 19 embarked on his remarkable career as a concert artist. He quickly rose to international prominence after he had moved to Britain, where early important appearances included performances of Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto with Colin Davis at the Edinburgh Festival, Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, again with Davis, at a Promenade Concert in London (a performance which won him further invitations to the ‘“Proms’’), and the Diabelli Variations in a solo recital at the

Royal Festival Hall, London. It was this recital, in 1961, which won him unanimous, unstinting’ praise from the critics and cemented his reputation as one of the most gifted of the younger generation of pianists.

Although Stephen Bishop has made his home in London he is now very much an international artist in demand all over the world. His engagements have included tours of the United States, Germany, New Zealand, and Israel, and visits to Scandinavia. In Britain in 1968 the highlight of his many commitments was the world premiere of the Piano Concerto of Richard Rodney Bennett.

Naturally Stephen Bishop has also been in demand in the recording field. He is now an exclusive Philips artist.

WARNING—Copyright subsists in all Philips recordings. Any unauthorized broadcasting, public per- formance, copying or re-recording in any manner whatsoever will constitute infringement of such copyright. Licences for the use of records for public performance may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd., Evelyn House, 62 Oxford Street, London, W.1.

MADE IN HOLLAND

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