Opus 56 Concerto in C major for piano, violin, cello and orchestra
I) Allegro – II) Largo – III) Rondo alla polacca
Opus 56, Concerto in C major for piano, violin, cello and orchestra, Op. 56, dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz, composed between 1803 and 1804 (no later than the summer), published in Vienna by the Bureau d’arts et d’industrie (orchestral and solo parts) in June–July 1807, and in Frankfurt by Dunst in 1836 (full score). Catalogue references: GA No. 70 (Series 9/6) – B. 56 – KH. 56 – L. III, p. 1 – N. 56 – T. 124.
The original manuscript is lost. The sketches are found in the Eroica and Fidelio sketchbooks. Among the Fidelio materials, there are also notes and ideas for a cadenza for the Rondo, which remained unused.
According to Schindler, the work was composed for the young Archduke Rudolf of Austria, to whom Beethoven had just begun giving lessons. As reported in Thayer–Riemann, the piano part was written with the technical abilities of the student in mind—challenging enough to be meaningful, but not so difficult as to make him appear out of place next to the other two performers: the violinist Carl August Seidler and the cellist Anton Kraft, both of whom were members of the archduke’s court.
Particularly demanding is the cello part, which lies almost entirely in the instrument’s upper register and is marked by a penetrating melodic sweetness.
According to the Thayer–Riemann, the concerto was likely performed privately in 1805 at the residence of Archduke Rudolph, who may have retained exclusive performance rights for approximately a year thereafter, a custom Beethoven had already followed in similar cases involving other patrons or honorary dedicatees. The first public performance took place during the summer of 1808, at a concert in the Augarten organized by Schuppanzigh, apparently with little success. Such was not the case, however, after Beethoven’s death, when a performance in 1830 at a concert spirituel—featuring pianist Carl Maria von Bocklet, violinist Joseph Mayseder, and cellist Joseph Merk—met with far greater acclaim.
No further performances are documented between those dates. In truth, the work has never enjoyed frequent performances, and even today it is not always counted among the most celebrated of Beethoven’s compositions. This may be due to its relative lack of overt dramatic tension, dynamic contrasts, or deeply tragic expression. Yet the music remains indisputably musical: marked by a felicitous abundance and freshness of ideas, by an immediacy of communication that never descends into the commonplace, by a fluid yet carefully wrought form, and by a technical craftsmanship always subordinate to expressive purpose.
In the first movement, the principal thematic material is stated in a rudimentary form by the full orchestra and is gradually enriched with the successive entries of the cello, violin, and piano. These solo entrances introduce auxiliary material and new melodic derivations, often presented in shifting tonal colors and bound together—despite their variety—by a shared elemental rhythmic drive.
The Largo belongs to that group of Beethovenian movements in which brevity seems to be a necessary condition for a concentrated expressiveness that a more extended development might not have achieved. For this reason, the movement can never be considered merely secondary within the overall structure of the concerto, despite being framed by two much more expansive movements and fulfilling an introductory role in relation to the concluding Rondo, to which it leads directly. One may draw a parallel with corresponding movements—similarly concise yet distinct in character—in the Piano Sonata, Op. 53, and the Sonata for Piano and Cello, Op. 69.
The tender principal melody, introduced by the cello over a string accompaniment, is soon taken up by all three solo instruments, with expressive reinforcement from selective and restrained wind entries. A marked tonal shift following this brief but intense outpouring leads directly, without pause, into the Rondo, whose refrain is harmonically varied while remaining within the bounds of the tonic key, C major. The movement returns us to the spirit of the opening Allegro, though typically cast in a more lighthearted atmosphere.
Its distinctly polonaise character is evident throughout—not only in its rhythm, whether overtly articulated or subtly implied, but also in the gestures of the principal theme and its intervening episodes. Only at the very end does a change of tempo (Allegro, 2/4) briefly disrupt this character—a closing stretta, which soon yields again to the original Tempo I, 3/4, allowing the work to conclude with fitting clarity and balance, both in concertante brilliance and formal resolution.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: Opus 56 Konzert (C-dur) für Violine, Violoncello, Klavier und Orchester Widmung: Franz Joseph Maximilian Fürst Lobkowitz NGA III/1 AGA 70 = Serie 9/6 Beiname: Tripelkonzert
Creation and Publication: The surviving sketches were produced in March and April 1804. By May or early June of that year, the full score and parts were ready for the first performance. The original edition in parts was published in June/July 1807 by the Kunst- und Industrie-Comptoir in Vienna.
Sketches in the “Keßler” notebook and an incomplete autograph score show that Beethoven had already been working on a concerto in D major in the spring of 1802, before completing the Triple Concerto of 1804 (see Unv 6, Unfinished Works). Alan Tyson further conjectures that around 14 October 1803, when Beethoven’s brother Kaspar Karl offered Breitkopf & Härtel a „Konzertant für alle Instrumenten für Klavier Violonzello und Violin“ (BGA 163), he was referring to a sketched-out project for a concerto in G major. This material appears in the collection of sketches preserved in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Landsberg 10, pp. 18–20).
According to Jonathan Del Mar, a copyist’s part for the first violin—preserved in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and checked by Beethoven—proves the existence of an earlier version of the concerto: “This Urfassung must have been totally revised in every detail; Beethoven must have written out two entire full scores.” It is unclear whether the work was commissioned by Prince Lobkowitz, but Beethoven received payment from the prince in November 1804 for the dedication.
Opus 56 was among the compositions offered to Breitkopf & Härtel on 26 August 1804, though the publishers declined by June 1805 (see also Op. 53).
Dedication: see Op. 18.
The first performance took place as part of two „Proben“ at Prince Lobkowitz’s residence in Vienna, before 9 June 1804 (see also Op. 55). The concerto was likely given its first public performance on 18 February 1808 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and in Vienna only in May 1808, at the Augarten. On 11 June 1804, Lobkowitz approved payment to several musicians who had assisted his orchestra in two rehearsals: „vom Bethowen seine Sinf: u Conc:“. Since, at the prince’s request, payments were to be made within two weeks of the corresponding service, these rehearsals likely took place in late May or early June.
A receipt by the Viennese copyist Wenzel Sukowaty, listing a „Concerto del Sig: Bethoven das erste Allegro – 9 Parten […] zu detto das Adagio. Alla Polacca und das letzte Tempo Allegro“, confirms that the concerto rehearsed was indeed Op. 56.
Nothing is known for certain about the soloists of the early performances; it is possible that Anton Wranitzky and either Anton or Nikolaus Kraft took part, and that Beethoven himself performed the piano part. At a meeting on 25 January 1805, Anton Wranitzky proposed to the Tonkünstler-Societät that the Eroica and the Triple Concerto be performed during the Society’s Lenten concert. In the end, neither work was included in the program.
The Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung reports on the Leipzig premiere among „den dies Vierteljahr gehörten Konzerten“: „Das grosse Beethovensche Konz, für Pianoforte, Violin u. Violoncell, mit reichem Orchester begleitet; die Solostimmen von Mad. Müller, Hrn. Matthäi und Hrn. Dozzauer gespielt. Dies Konzert ist, unsrer Einsicht nach, unter den gestochenen Beet-hovenschen das letzte – nicht blos in Bezug auf die Zeit. […] So gut das Konzert gespielt und begleitet ward, so sehr das hiesige Publikum für B.s Kompositionen gewonnen ist: so gefiel diese doch nur mässig.“
This likely refers to the concert held at the Gewandhaus on 18 February 1808.
As for the first public performance in Vienna, one contemporary report states: „Auch hörten wir in einer dieser Akademien ein ganz neues Concertino von Beethoven für Pianof., Viol. und Violonc., mit Begleitung des Orchesters; welches aber keinen rechten Eingang finden wollte. Es besteht fast nur aus Passagen, welche auf die drey Instrumente ziemlich gleich vertheilt sind, mit der Zeit aber, für den Zuhörer, wie für den Spieler, gleich ermüdend werden; indem weder das Ohr des Erstem, noch die Hand der Letzteren die Ruhe finden können, um gleichsam zu sich selbst zu kommen. Indessen kann man, wie bekannt, über Beethovensche Kompositionen selten beym Erstenmale ein bestimmtes Urtheil fällen.“
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
