Beethoven’s Forgotten Concerto – Q&A with Anton Kuerti
Kuerti brings Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 0 back to life
Acclaimed Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti
When pianist Anton Kuerti joins the National Broadcast Orchestra for its January 8 Chan Centre Gala Benefit Concert, the audience will be given the rare opportunity to hear a long-forgotten concerto come back to life.
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 0 in E-flat major was written in 1784 when the composer was only 14 years old. It survives as a one-piano reduction, which was clumsily re-orchestrated by German musicologist, Willy Hess, in the 1940s.
Kuerti, known the world over for his performances of Beethoven’s five other piano concertos and 32 piano sonatas, wanted to add Concerto No. 0 to his repertoire. He decided to make his own attempt at filling in the musical blanks.
Kuerti recently shared his thoughts about Beethoven’s very first piano concerto and its journey back to the concert stage.
How did you learn about the existence of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 0?
Not many people know about it, but the piano reduction is published in an authentic edition, so it’s not a secret.
What was involved in re-orchestrating the work?
What survives is a reduction for one piano. Usually, you have a two-piano reduction so you can see what the orchestra is playing, but that doesn’t exist here. The solo part is all there, except the cadenzas, but wherever the piano is playing there is no hint of what Beethoven might have had in mind for the orchestra.
How does your re-orchestration compare to the one from the 1940s?
I played that version once about 25 years ago and thought it was really poorly done. I didn’t think it was really in the early-Beethoven style. Too much material had been imposed on it and the orchestration was far too heavy.
I’ve tried to keep it simple. I did have to invent tunes and fill out some of the harmonies. In cases like these, one wants to make it sound like a finished work, but I don’t think one should add more than necessary.
Was it difficult to find the right balance between authenticity and the need to create a complete piece of music?
You can’t be authentic with something you are inventing, but you can try to keep it in style. The most fun was writing the cadenzas, which I think came out quite well.
You began this project in 2005. Have you performed the work in public before?
I performed it twice with Boris Brott during the summer of 2006; in Montreal with the McGill Chamber Orchestra and in Hamilton as part of the Brott Summer Festival.
What does this concerto tell us about the young Beethoven?
It has a freshness and originality and shows that he was quite a boy. There are not many works from this period, and this is the most ambitious. It already has some of the traits of his later years. Much of it is very beautiful and virtuosic. Of course his later works were more sophisticated and daring, but this is a terrific start.
As an acknowledged Beethoven specialist, what was it like for you to bring this concerto back to life?
It’s thrilling to be able to work alongside Beethoven and draw on one’s knowledge of the composer to reinvent one of his compositions which otherwise could not be performed.
- Interview by Nicole Laidler
[...] notamment le Concerto numéro zéro de Beethoven, œuvre de jeunesse reconstituée par ses soins. (Le pianiste parle du concerto ici…) Le programme inclut également la création de The Sparrow’s Ledger du compositeur canadien [...]
[...] will perform Beethoven’s Concerto No. 0, an early work rebuilt and reorchestrated by Kuerti. (The pianist taks about the concerto here…) Program also includes the premiere of Canadian composer Michael Oesterle’s The Sparrow’s [...]
[...] Read the entire National Broadcast Orchestra of Canada story here. [...]