The piece
Beethoven wrote his Fifth Piano Concerto in Vienna in 1809; the nickname “Emperor” is not his. Between two fast movements, the Adagio un poco mosso opens with a deep, gentle theme in B major, played by the muted strings before the piano comes in. The version played here is that theme, after the arrangement for piano solo that Theodor Pfeiffer, a pupil of Hans von Bülow, published in 1892.
The right hand plays the strings' chords, always smoothly joined, the top note a little stronger than the others: it carries the tune. The left hand imitates the plucked strings of the double basses with light, detached eighths; keep them strictly in time under the held chords. Let the sound grow to the forte of bar 9, then return gently to piano.
