The premiere of this concerto took place at a marathon concert organized by
Beethoven at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 22 December 1808. The
program included the world premieres of Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and
Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, the Vienna premiere of the Piano Concerto No. 4,
and excerpts from other works by Beethoven - more than four hours of
demanding contemporary music by a "difficult" composer! The soloist opens
the concerto with a theme that seems like a gentle echo of the forceful
"Fate" theme that opens the Fifth Symphony. The Andante is a kind of
dialogue between the two different temperaments: the stark and stern
strings, and the gentle, pleading piano. The boisterous finale rushes
through a variety of contrasting moods before bringing the piece to a
rousing close.
Leonard Bernstein recorded this work in an all-Beethoven concert with the
Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio at Munich's Deutsches Museum in 1976.
The soloist was Claudio Arrau.