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Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

CHAPTER

Beethoven's Second Theme in D Minor

The first theme section in this extremely expansive movement is, well, expansive. This isn't traditionally virtuosic music and it's down to the pianists to find a way to make poetry out of these lines rather than just wow the audience with their technical abilities. There are these kinds of heart-stopping moments of beauty where all the motion virtually ceases and we are back into the dream world of the beginning of the piece. The second theme begins in D minor but almost immediately leaves that key. Remember how Beethoven moved through keys in his original second theme? Well he does the same thing here in order to find his way to a glowing CMajor.

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