This was Beethoven's last completed piano concerto, written between 1809 and 1811. Extremely romantic and serene, much like a hymn, the second movement could be considered as highlighting the end of the classical period and marking the beginning of the romantic period of classical music.
The music was composed while Vienna was under invasion from Napoleon's forces. Beethoven had to seek shelter in the basement of his brother's house. Imagine Beethoven frightened and locked in a basement, trying to save his life and his damaged ears. "The whole course of events has affected my body and soul" he wrote. "What a disturbing wild life around me. Nothing but drums, canons, men, misery of all sorts. It is extraordinary how Beethoven wrote such a serene and haunting music under these horrendous circumstances!
It was named "Emperor Concerto" when a french army officer called it "an emperor among concertos". This is however a name Beethoven would have never given to his music as he did not have any respect for the emperor Napoleon and considered him a traitor of noble ideals, a dictator. Beethoven had declared: "It is a pity I do not understand the art of war as well as I do the art of music. I would conquer him [Napoleon]!" Therefore, through this noble and firm music, Beethoven illustrates his philosophical and political concerns and is expressing his ideals of human dignity and freedom. According to Lacheza Kostov, the associate principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony, this music is "anything but monumental, anything but beautiful and aesthetic. It is a shout for freedom".