Piano Concerto #2 -- ahead of its time

[euphony131]

Had a Eureka moment when listening to LvB's Piano Concerto #2 (which is really his first one).
Ashish Kumar of YouTube writes how the coda of the slow mvt starts to "build' and: looks like it would lead into a cadenza. Instead – in a wonderful moment which leaps decades ahead to late Beethoven, we get a rapt recitative (20:38), marked “con gran espressione”.

You're expecting big, brash chords and instead the piano plays very simply and proceeds to get softer.

You can click on the hyperlink (version by Helmchen) or listen to Andnes playing it @ 6:58 (which was the CD I was listening to). It's preceded by a tutti:

It's the most poignant moment in the whole work. I never realized until now just how stylistically different it seems, like it's flown in from another land. Like as LvB was writing this "standard" concerto (which has plenty of earwormy moments) he got seized by a vision that was even grander, yet quieter and more profound.

Just my humble opinion!

Does anyone else feel the same?

[Peter]

Interesting especially when you consider the first 2 movements were sketched even earlier whilst Beethoven was still in Bonn. Also it is often claimed the model for this concerto was Mozart's K.595 in the same key which has a composition date of 1791 which is odd if it had influenced Beethoven's earlier sketches! However the mystery may be solved if Alan Tyson is correct in assuming an earlier date of 1788.

[Michael]

I've always preferred this concerto slightly more than "No. 1".
Beethoven said it was not one of his best works, but what does he know!