Interpretation of piano concerto №4 in G Major op. 58— 2nd movement by Beethoven

Over the years, I have acquired countless fascinations with the body of work conducted by Beethoven. Saying he was gifted is an understatement as no words can precisely reveal the kind of praise he warrants. But did he make music or told us a story? A well-known aspect of his work is that Beethoven visually composed his work in entirety and not parts while simultaneously modeling the narratives.

While listening to the second movement of the Piano Concerto number two “Andante con moto” [for what could be my hundredth time], I experienced a breakthrough moment where I could comprise the work into my account of a visual story.

This piece begins with a set of string notes drawing the listener into the passage of a dark and gloomy argument. In just 12 seconds, you can merely taste the nuisance as a group of personalities, aiming to voice their agitation.

What follows next is an astounding plot of slow, quiet, and passive piano notes in a nonresponsive passive temper superimposed the lack of empathy and disregard of the previous phrase of the strings as if nothing has happened. The piano lingers with no sign of urgency and finishes while leaving everyone suspended in ambiguity.

Once again the strings return with familiar awkwardness and reconstruct of agitation in the short passage as if it is here to remind the piano to listen carefully this time and meet the inquiry because now we know it was reaffirmed in this second pass.

One minute in as the solo piano returns. Quite and slow the piano starts as if the intention is to stall the passing time. Once again dismissive of the strings with no signs of participation and interest in communicating when at 1:30 the sting jumps to interrupt the piano. As the strings stop the piano returns to the path of melody reaffirming a lack of interest in conversation nor engagement of sort. With piano now getting louder and stings interruptive returns we now have a form of short yet destructive exchange.

At 2:10 we see strings repeating their point once again anticipating engagement and acknowledgment of their message and understanding by the solo piano.

Gand of stings against a piano solo. The piano keeps thriving on melody as the stings become naggingly repetitive and mumbling.

At 2:35 piano moves to make another pass of dreamy tunes and for the time being it feels like stings have given up their message. At this moment piano decides to sprint in confidence and dominance with faster downhill notes showing that it has left the string completely behind.

As the piano slows down in 4:20 something unexpected happens as piano and strings fall into each others’ lap in form of accidental embracement. Few calmer huff and puffs passages of the stings again as if telling piano: I have been trying to reason. But at 4:30 we now have a calmer less agitated strings and perhaps caution not to scare piano away as the piano has already made a point of not caring and its ability to escape faster than strings can ever catch up.

At around 4:50 and almost towards the end of life, the music junctures that strings and piano have belatedly decided to savor each other’s presence as they stroll towards the closing moments of their lives.

To metaphorically paint this concerto, we can say that life may be short and we certainly cannot avoid agitations that cross our paths. We can choose to engage as they often push and pull us to develop an edge. Depending on how much it means to us we then choose to fight back or carry along. In this particular case, the violins became the rock in piano’s shoes and piano decided to ignore and carry on, and even at some point piano learned to surpass the unrest. But none the less being passive comes with a cost as strings continued to decrease the quality of what otherwise could have been a contentious piano solo.