Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven)

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 may have been created in 1800, although this has been argued by some musicologists. It was first played on 5 April 1803, with Beethoven as the soloist.  On the same day, the Second Symphony and Christ on the Mount of Olives were also played for the first time.Steinberg, Michael, The Concerto: A Listener's Guide, pp. 59–63, Oxford (1998). The work was made public in 1804 and was dedicated to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. The first theme is similar to that of Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto, also in C minor.

Structure
The concerto was created for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B, 2 bassoons, 2 horns in E, E and C, 2 trumpets in C, timpani, strings, and piano soloist.

As is normal for Classical/Romantic-era concertos, the work is in three movements:

First performance
The piece was not finished when it was first played. Beethoven's friend Ignaz von Seyfried, who turned the pages of the music for him, wrote:
I saw almost nothing but empty pages; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly unintelligible to me were scribbled down to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all the solo part from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time to set it all down on paper.

References

Other websites


 Sheetmusic, Musopen
 , Program Notes on the Third Piano Concerto by Ron Drummond

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Category:Compositions in C minor
Category:Compositions with dedications
Category:1800s compositions