Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto was the last that he would be able to perform himself before progressive hearing loss robbed him of the ability to play with an orchestra.
Angry and bitter, he wrote some of his most fiery music in the first years of the 1800s – think the Symphony No. 5 – but this concerto wasn’t one of them. This is Beethoven at his most lyrical.
Franz Schubert -- also beset with woe -- too was able to put aside his problems and write evocative songs inspired by the beauty of his surroundings.
We'll have them both this week, then music of Vivaldi and Bach, and a divertimento by Mozart.
We'll hear those in the next two weeks.
