Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58 (Arranged for Piano and String Quintet)

Description

This anonymous sextet arrangement of Beethovens 4th Piano Concerto was highly popular in Vienna during the composer's lifetime. We know this from at least two sets of handwritten parts which were then in circulation.

No piano part has been handed down; indeed, the original sets of parts probably omitted the piano. The soloist presumably studied his part from the first edition of the solo part, published with the original performance material in 1808. (The full score did not appear until 1861.)

The sextet version deftly integrates the original wind parts into the string texture. The arrangement stands in the tradition of piano reductions with chamber music accompaniment, of the sort which were also made for Mozart's piano concertos K. 413 to 415 and later for the Chopin concertos.