The Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, WoO 4, is Beethoven¿s earliest concerto and probably his first work to use any sort of an orchestra. Probably composed in 1785, the work is a substantial one, with three fully-developed movements spread fairly evenly over its thirty-five minute length. A manuscript copy of the solo piano part (no full score has been found) contains all tutti sections as well as instrumental cues indicating an orchestra of two flutes, two horns, and strings. In 1943 a workable version for piano and orchestra assembled by Swiss musicologist Willi Hess was published, but it was a product of its time, and some liberties were taken (for instance, the endings of the second and third movements were changed). The present edition retains Beethoven¿s scoring and also features parts for bassoons, which would normally have played along on the bass line. The original endings of the Larghetto and Rondo have been restored, original dynamics are closely adhered to, thematic material is introduced at logical places, and interplay between the soloist and various instruments is featured at a number of locations. Beethoven tightened up this concerto by crossing out measures in all three movements, and these have been included in appendices.

Eminent Beethoven scholar Willy Hess completed his own reconstruction of the concerto in 1943. His version has been recorded three times, but only one is currently available on the Philips label (442580-2). The newest reconstruction of the concerto, created by Professor Jon Ceander Mitchell in 2003, is presented in this study in the form of a piano reduction (as a two-piano critical edition). This present edition, edited by Dr. Mitchell and the author of this essay, retains Beethoven's instrumentation and restores the endings of the second and third movements (which were changed by Willy Hess). This study also includes a piano cadenza for the first movement, which is a free composition by the author. It also discusses both available restorations of this work and some of the concerto's interpretative issues.

A collection of ten chapters that approach Beethoven and his music from aesthetic, analytical, biographical, historical and performance perspectives.

Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Concerto Number Four, Opus Fifty-Eight" This version only contains the piano part, with orchestral cues. It does not contain the full score or other instrument's parts.

Complete scores of five great Beethoven piano concertos, with all cadenzas as he wrote them, reproduced from authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel edition. Includes new table of contents.