Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

• Beethoven composed this concerto in 1795 and revised it in 1800.¹ The composer was the piano soloist in the work’s (likely) first performance, which took place in Vienna on December 18, 1795.²
  • This concert was Beethoven’s second-ever performance in Vienna as a pianist-composer. The concert was arranged by Beethoven’s then-teacher, Joseph Haydn, and it featured some of Haydn’s recently composed London Symphonies.³
  • We know that Beethoven played one of his concertos at this concert, and though we’re not 100% certain it was the C Major concerto, at this point scholars think that is the most likely option.⁴
• Though this piano concerto is labeled Beethoven’s “No. 1,” it’s not the first one he wrote. There is an incomplete score to a piano concerto (WoO 4) that he wrote in 1784, and he actually finished his Piano Concerto No. 2 the same year he wrote the first version of No. 1. ⁵ The numbering reflects that fact that No. 2⁶ was published a few months after No. 1.⁷
  • In The Concerto: A Listener’s Guide, Michael Steinberg suggests that Beethoven published the C Major concerto first because it was a splashier, more ambitious composition, which would make a stronger first impression with the Viennese public.⁸
• Beethoven dedicated this concerto to one of his aristocratic piano students, Princess Barbara Odescalchi (née Countess von Keglevics). Beethoven dedicated several piano works to her, including the Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 7.⁹

Movements

1. Allegro con brio (C major) 
2. Largo (A♭ major) 
3. Rondo. Allegro (C major)¹⁰

1. Douglas Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), accessed October 1, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040026. 
2. “Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15 (Beethoven, Ludwig van),” IMSLP, accessed October 1, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No.1%2C_Op.15_(Beethoven%2C_Ludwig_van).
3. Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online
4. Michael Steinberg, The Concerto: A Listener’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 52.
5. Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online
6. “Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19 (Beethoven, Ludwig van),” IMSLP, accessed October 1, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No.2%2C_Op.19_(Beethoven%2C_Ludwig_van).
7. “Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15 (Beethoven, Ludwig van),” IMSLP.
8. Steinberg, The Concerto: A Listener’s Guide, 52.
9. Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online.
10. “Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15 (Beethoven, Ludwig van),” IMSLP.