Beethoven's Unfinished Piano Concerto: A Case of Double Vision?

Abstract

During 1814-15 Beethoven sketched the first movement of a piano concerto, writing out a considerable proportion of it in full score. Some of the curious stylistic features that have been ascribed to this movement are the consequence of a faulty reading of MS Artaria 184, in which open-score sketches have been bound in with the autograph score. One curious feature, however, remains: the symphonic nature of the materials. There is some reason to believe that, because of this, Beethoven considered deleting the tutti exposition, resulting in a symphonic work with obbligato piano. Such indecision at a late stage in the compositional process could explain why Beethoven abandoned the work.