Pianist - Krystian Zimerman / Conductor - Leonard Bernstein
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- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 - Glenn Gould and Karajan
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 - Krystian Zimerman
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil. The first performance took place in November 1811, at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the soloist being Friedrich Schneider. In 1812, Carl Czerny, his student, gave the Vienna debut of this work.
The epithet of Emperor for this concerto, was not Beethoven's own, but was coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto. Its duration is approximately forty minutes.
Prominent recordings
In March 1927 Ignaz Friedman recorded the Emperor Concerto with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood but this recording no longer exists. Also in the 1920s, Wilhelm Backhaus recorded the 4th and 5th concertos very successfully. In the early 1930s Artur Schnabel recorded all five Beethoven concertos under Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra. Arthur Rubinstein recorded it three times, once with Eugene Ormandy. Walter Gieseking and Artur Rother made a stereophonic tape recording in 1944, apparently the earliest surviving such recording, for German radio. Wilhelm Kempff recorded it with Paul van Kempen in 1953 and with Ferdinand Leitner in 1961. Edwin Fischer recorded it with Karl Böhm in 1939 and Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1951. Leon Fleisher recorded all the Beethoven piano concertos with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra from 1959 until 1961. Claudio Arrau recorded it three times: with Alceo Galliera in 1958, Bernard Haitink in 1964 and in 1984 with Sir Colin Davis. Glenn Gould recorded this concerto with Leopold Stokowski (the only recording the two ever made together) using somewhat non-traditional phrasings and tempi, as was typical of Gould's interpretations. Paul Lewis recorded all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.
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