Klaus Mäkelä
Leif Ove Andsnes Béla Bartók
Ludwig van Beethoven

The Emperor Concerto

When Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) captivated the Viennese concert audience in the 1790s, it was both as a pianist and a composer, as a great performer of his music. In 1811, when his Piano Concerto No. 5 was ready for its premiere, Beethoven had lost so much of his hearing that he could not play himself.

In return, he kept on creating new miracles as a composer. Nobody knows who started naming the Piano Concerto No. 5 the “Emperor Concert,” but the nickname has remained. Beethoven starts the piano concerto in a completely novel way—after some chords from the orchestra, the soloists get to shine on their own in the majestic introduction.

In the fall of 1940, Béla Bartók emigrated from Hungary to the United States with his wife Ditta, and settled in New York. He did not settle very well, and the following years were marked by serious health problems. Bartók had many acquaintances in the city, and was a sought-after lecturer, but was relatively unknown as a composer. 

During a hospital stay, he was visited by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who ordered an orchestral work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The commission renewed his strength, and the premiere in 1944 was a huge success. Concerto for Orchestra became Bartók’s most popular orchestral work, inspired by folk music and with soloist tasks for many orchestral musicians.