Well, this is more like it--more what I hoped for from a Beethoven concerto. More like Beethoven, I would even say. I mean, if Beethoven had died in, say, 1802, when he had written only the first two symphonies and the first two piano concertos, he would certainly have been remembered, but he wouldn't be Beethoven, the giant we know. I don't feel that I'm listening to that giant in the first two concertos, but I do in this one, though he's just getting started. The first two seem to me as if they could have been written by Mozart, but not the third. 

I guess, now that I think about it, it's especially the first movement that makes me say that. I think its structure is unusual: there is a long (several minutes) orchestral introduction in which a strong, but not bombastic, theme alternates with a more sweeping, almost pastoral one--a march alternating with a dance, and this introduction closes with something that sounds very much like a finale to me.

For a naive listener like me who doesn't understand or appreciate much of what's going on technically, a work in sonata form stands or falls on its principal themes--they have to touch me in order for me to find the changes wrought on them interesting. This movement certainly makes the grade in that respect. It's a vigorous and varied piece of music, not on the awe-inspiring level of the works that would come later, but certainly one that I'll want to hear again from time to time. I especially like the way it closes: the cadenza* is pretty close to the end, and is as spectacular as one could wish, closing with quiet trills that fade into equally quiet orchestral stirrings that quickly rise toward a fairly typical movement-closing resolution of loud chords. The transition takes only just over a minute and the effect is striking. Personally I would have preferred the fadeout, but the power chords seem to have been close to obligatory for a century or more.

The cadenza is apparently Beethoven's; the notes on my recording seem to assume so. The pianist, Alfred Brendel, makes these remarks:

In most of his cadenzas, Beethoven the architect turns into a genius running amok; almost all the principles of classical order fall by the wayside.... Breaking away in an alien manner from the style and character of the movement does not bother Beethoven at all, and the most adventurous harmonic detours are made with relish. No other composer has ever hazarded cadenzas of such provoking madness.

And right on, I say.

The second movement is mainly a lovely melody that seems almost hymn-like. The third is high-speed and high-spirited, even light-hearted--not as wildly energetic or as striking as that of the first concerto, but in the same vein. 

No, this concerto did not fly up straightaway into the higher reaches of my musical favorites, but neither will it be checked off and filed away, likely never to be heard again, considering my age.

The recording was from the same 5-CD set as the other two:

I don't have anything to say about the performance, having nothing to compare it to, but I have one complaint about the recording. As you can see from the cover, it's "live" (those quotation marks make it seem as if the term were questionable), recorded in 1983 and issued on CD in 1997. And the record company decided to include the applause at the end of each concerto. It's really loud, and quite intrusive and annoying. 

* In case you don't know the term, a cadenza is a virtuoso section for the concerto's featured instrument alone.