Summary
Beethoven's fifth and final piano concerto, The Emperor is majestic and moving in equal measure.
Richard McMahon plays extracts and discusses the virtuosic it demands.
Australian film producer, Hal McElroy, talks about using the Adagio (the second movement) to illustrate the classic 1970s film Picnic at Hanging Rock.
That was where Andrew Law – who was Chaplain at Malvern College - first heard the piece. He describes the Adagio as being 'one of those pieces of art which it is worth being alive to have heard'.
Concert pianist, James Rhodes, describes how The Emperor was central to his childhood and his developing love of Beethoven's piano music.
Music teacher and singer, Prue Hawthorne, recalls how her father (an amateur clarinettist) laboriously transcribed by hand the horn and clarinet sections of the first movement so they could play along with the record in their living room.
Also contributing is the renowned Beethoven biographer, John Suchet.
Concert pianist Richard McMahon has now retired as a teacher at the Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama.
Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.
Producer: Karen Gregor
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.
Transcript
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| 0:38.0 | Beaton's Emperor Concerto starts with just one chord in the orchestra, |
| 0:42.7 | rather like they're throwing down the gauntlet to the soloist. |
| 0:46.3 | And then... Now a concerto basically is a piece written for orchestra and solo instrument. Beethoven only wrote five, |
| 1:14.5 | and in each one of them he was exploring new ways of dealing with this medium. The thing that's |
| 1:21.1 | extraordinary about the fifth and to some extent the fourth is that they are the only two concertos |
| 1:26.3 | apart from one by Mozart that begin straight |
| 1:29.9 | away with the soloist. It's a fantastic way of opening up the piece and I can still remember the first |
| 1:36.4 | time I ever heard it which was when I was at school 50 years ago I suppose now this music just |
| 1:42.2 | drifted in from an adjoining classroom and I'd never heard it before and so my God, what is that? |
| 1:47.9 | My name is Richard McMahon and after quite a varied professional career, I now have the privilege of being head of keyboard department at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. |
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