Piano Concerto no. 5 "Emperor" in E-flat major, op. 73

Beethoven composed the Fifth Concerto in 1809, the year Napoleon's army shelled and then occupied Vienna; he is said to have sheltered in a cellar with pillows over his ears. It was dedicated, like so much else, to Archduke Rudolph, and it is the first of the concertos Beethoven did not play himself — his hearing had gone too far. Friedrich Schneider gave the premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 28 November 1811, and Carl Czerny the Vienna performance a few months later. The nickname Emperor is not the composer's and did not come from him.