Although Concerto in C major op. 15 is known as the first of Beethoven’s piano concertos, it was written after Concerto No. 2 in B flat major. The numbering followed the order of publication of those works, in opposition to the dates of their creation. The Concerto in C major shows the influence of the works of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is cheerful in mood, balanced in terms of proportions, maintained in the traditional three-movement formal scheme. Beethoven’s expressive personality is betrayed by at times courageous harmonic ideas. The first player of the brilliant, virtuoso solo part was the composer himself, who gave the first performance in 1800 in Vienna.

The concert will end with the performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 in F major, which is a light, graceful and cheerful work. According to the composer’s secretary, Anton Schindler, the characteristic staccato sixteenth notes in the second movement are a parody of the ticking of a metronome (a device used to give precise tempo) that the composer’s friend Johann Nepomuk Mälzel worked on. During one of the parties with their mutual friends, Beethoven and the rest of the guests were to improvise a short, witty canon in honour of the inventor; he later used it to write a new symphony. The piece is now known as Ta ta ta, lieber Mälzel. The problem, however, is that researchers have never confirmed this version of events, and the author of the canon and the whole story is probably Anton Schindler himself.