Beethoven’s Italian Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58)

Abstract

We know that composers from all times have found inspiration sources in either popular music or in music written by their predecessors or their colleagues and that no music has been completely isolated within a geographical boundary because the whole purpose of it was to be shared with the public and to convey a wide range of emotions and interesting reactions from people who were more or less familiar with the performing side of this art. There were times, from the 15th to the 18th and even the 19th century in Europe, both Western and Central, when even the news of the day was brought in through music, being sung and performed in front of ordinary people by different versions of minstrels or troubadours who also used very basic instruments in conveying their messages. Is it possible that Beethoven used Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as an inspiration source when writing his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58? I will endeavour to show some similarities between the works which could be credited for such an act of translation or transforming existing musical material into innovation.