ABSTRACT
An interesting suggestion of a recapitulation follows in which Beethoven starts with the piano solo exactly as it was when it first entered except that the material is now in the dominant key of F major. The ensuing two-octave scales in the first violins suggest a somewhat less sacred atmosphere and it is not long before the piano is summoned by a peremptory rhythm on loud unison B flats. In 1795, when he would have been twenty-four and was just starting to be known as a promising young composer rather than as a brilliant pianist, Beethoven was commissioned to write a concerto for a concert to be given to raise money for the widows and orphans of the Society of Musicians in Vienna. Beethoven's troubles were not over for when he arrived at the hall to rehearse on the day, he found to his dismay that the piano was half a tone flat.
