Beethoven's Concertos: History, Style, Performance Book

Analysis of Beethoven's concertos, at least in the hands of Leon Plantinga, yields insights into almost every aspect of the composer's work. Along with the standard concertos for piano and violin, Plantinga covers the violin romances and the Triple Concerto, sketches for an aborted sixth piano concerto, and the early Rondo WoO 6. There are dozens of helpful musical examples grouped in a separate booklet. Beethoven originally withheld and revised his piano concertos for his own use and did not perform them after they had been published. But by the time of the Fourth Concerto, Plantinga sees a decided shift to the concerto as a work meant to stand on its own as a symphony does; Beethoven's Fifth Concerto was apparently the very first piano concerto to have been given its premiere by someone other than the composer. In discussing the other works, Plantinga makes an effective comparison of the B-flat Concerto with Haydn's music rather than (as is conventional) with Mozart's. The author's considerable knowledge of Clementi's music is illuminating in relation to the C Major Concerto. Chapters on the C Minor Concerto include a long and careful reconstruction of its compositional history (recapitulated in a short appendix for those who are not musicologically inclined). The tired explanation of the G Major Concerto's slow movement as an Orpheus narrative is effectively dismissed, and Plantinga's dissection of the internal relationships in the slow movement of the "Emperor" is a particularly fine segment of a fine book. Even readers who are not pianists will find helpful, practical information about when and how a soloist might participate in the orchestral sections of classical concertos, systems of tuning in the period, cadenzas, and historical ideas about tempo. They will also enjoy Plantinga's direct, colorful writing style: the last movement of the "Emperor" behaves "more like a large puppy than a reliable steed." --William R. Braun Read More