MUSIClassical notes: Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1 in C, Op 15

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, was written during 1796 and 1797. Dedicated to his pupil Countess of Bratislava, Anna Louise Barbara ("Babette") Keglevics, its first performance was in Prague in 1798, with Beethoven himself playing the piano. It is said that a team of copyists were still preparing the orchestral parts the evening prior to the first performance. Also, that the piano had been tuned a semitone flat leaving Beethoven to transpose his own work up a semitone into C♯ major at sight, which he did. Although this was Beethoven's first piano concerto to be published, it was, in fact, his third attempt at the genre, following an unpublished piano concerto in E-flat major (not to be confused with Beethoven's more famous "Emperor" concerto, also in E-flat) and the Piano Concerto No. 2, published after Piano Concerto No. 1 (in 1801) but composed almost ten years earlier.

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