# Beethoven - Op. 15 - Piano Concerto No. 1



## HansZimmer (11 mo ago)

If you like film music, don't forget to vote in the poll Best Original Musical or Comedy Score - 1996!


How do you rate this piece?

Piano: Glenn Gould
Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Vladimir Golschmann


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

I'm not super familiar with this concerto, as I listen to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th more often. Aside from the usual cycles, there was one standalone performance of this I listened to a few weeks ago and enjoyed:









Christoph Eschenbach, piano; Herbert von Karajan: Berliner Philharmoniker (1966)

I especially love the first-movement cadenza Eschenbach uses here. I think Beethoven wrote about three cadenzas, and the one Eschenbach uses is the longest/most involved of the lot. But Eschenbach never made another recording with Karajan after this, as far as I'm aware, and I don't know the reason for that. Here is the transcript of an interesting interview he gave in 1990. Maybe I'll give the Gould recording you linked a listen, but I often don't react well to his idiosyncrasies.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

I voted good as my humble opinion the real works starts at 3 .
So many recordings, Murray Perahia -Boris Giltburg and Jan Lisiecki will do for now


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I went for excellent, it's my favorite earlyish orchestral work by Beethoven (and I also prefer it to more mature pieces like the violin and triple concerti). It has a really great slow movement and the youthful vigor of the outer movements is also appealing.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

I enjoy no.1 as much as any of its companions. For me the finale goes on juuust a little too long, but I still couldn't deny it an Excellent vote. Favourite recording: Solomon with the Philharmonia conducted by Herbert Menges.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

HansZimmer said:


> If you like film music, don't forget to vote in the poll Best Original Musical or Comedy Score - 1996!
> 
> 
> How do you rate this piece?
> ...


But this has that wayout Gould cadenza after the 31 minute mark!!


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

My least enjoyed of the concertos by Beethoven, but I still think it's good. A 7.0 out of 10 to my ears. It's worth noting that despite being called "No. 1", this is actually the second piano concerto Beethoven completed of the ones he published.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Luchesi said:


> But this has that wayout Gould cadenza after the 31 minute mark!!


Gould's "excuse" was that Beethoven himself wrote a wayout cadenza for the Bflat major concerto...
Despite the cadenza I like Golshmann/Gould a lot; they seem to be among the few to get the "military" character of the first movement right, including a fast tempo that seems also correct to me as the main theme(s) clearly seem to go in a half notes (not quarters) pulse.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

It's my favorite of Beethoven's early concertos (I'm not the biggest fan of the 3rd), a brilliant piece throughout. A comparison to that other C major concerto (the Triple concerto) is inevitable since they share the same mood of bright, forceful confidence - but the 1st Piano Concerto wins on all fronts.


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

Kreisler jr said:


> Gould's "excuse" was that Beethoven himself wrote a wayout cadenza for the Bflat major concerto...
> Despite the cadenza I like Golshmann/Gould a lot; they seem to be among the few to get the "military" character of the first movement right, including a fast tempo that seems also correct to me as the main theme(s) clearly seem to go in a half notes (not quarters) pulse.


I'm glad Gould composed this cadenza. Are there any cadenzas like it? 

It's curious to me how rigid many listeners are about eccentric renditions. They will usually shun them, while I seek them out.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Luchesi said:


> I'm glad Gould composed this cadenza. Are there any cadenzas like it?
> It's curious to me how rigid many listeners are about eccentric renditions. They will usually shun them, while I seek them out.






LangLang


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## Luchesi (Mar 15, 2013)

hammeredklavier said:


> LangLang


Thanks. He seems to me to be always finding something that he heard when he was young playing the piano. He'll find these ‘favorites’ in any piece he plays. It feels like the joy of discovery (even if he’s changing the composer’s intentions slightly). I think we should all do this, for ourselves, or at least try it.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Knowing about its high standing, some even thinking that it's the best among Beethoven's piano concertos, I personally prefer the other major works (concertos 2-5), and also the Triple Concerto, but not the Choral Fantasy and the Violin Concerto in the piano version. It's just that the themes somehow appeal less to me, especially the marching-on of the 1st movement.


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## Eva Yojimbo (Jan 30, 2016)

The slow movement is really beautiful, but I think the others are below standard compared to Beethoven's later concertos, especially 4 and 5. I probably like it better than 2. I've always thought 3 was overrated; it may be a bit better than 1 & 2 but not by much in my estimation.


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## Musicaterina (Apr 5, 2020)

Here a performance on period instruments:

Steven Lubin (Fortepiano)
Performed by the Academy of Ancient Music
Directed by Christopher Hogwood


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I recognize the Piano Concerti Nos. 4 and 5 as two of the great masterworks of music, regardless of era or genre or style.... But I more often listen to the first three Beethoven concerti. Is it possible to favor works that one recognizes are _not_ as "great" as others in the genre by the composer? I hold a similar attitude towards the Symphonies, where I recognize the Third as perhaps the greatest of the nine, and yet it is my least preferred of the series. Still, my "least preferred" of a Beethoven work generally ranks it higher on the list -- much higher in most cases -- than "most favored" works by almost any other composers.

Beethoven's First Piano Concerto receives a lot of play in my listening room, and though I possess several possibilities (a couple dozen in actuality) for "spinning" that particular work on the turntable or in one of the CD decks, I tend to go most often, it seems, with the Barenboim/Klemperer/New Philharmonia Orchestra version, a long-time favorite with what I "hear" as a strong, Beethovenish sound. 










This is the box set I carried around in the old Jeep (the one that had a CD player) and listened to often while travelling those long roads. A second box awaited on my home shelf. I could likely live with this one box for the Beethoven Symphonies and Piano Concerti, but I'm glad I have more choices. Each artist (pianist, conductor, orchestra, production engineer) have their own individual "preferences" which makes for varied approaches from recording to recording, and though I may not like an overall approach from one artist, there are generally "touches" here and there that will still astound or cause a smile.

Among favorites of this same First Concerto outside of the Barenboim/Klemperer/NPO box are these, all in my current collection:
































https://www.discogs.com/artist/704150-New-Philharmonia-Orchestra


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