I would be curious to see peoples' rankings of all Beethoven concertos in terms of quality, and/or, perhaps not quite the same question: in terms of how much you like them. Feel free to comment on your choice, particularly if you have played any of them. If you don't know all of them, just rank the ones you do know. (I didn't use the poll technology because it dooms the results to being skewed by voters who have only heard two concertos.)
My choice (starting with the greatest):
-Violin concerto
-Piano concerto 4
-Piano concerto 5 'Emperor'
-Piano concerto 3
-Tripple concerto & Piano concerto 1 (tie)
-Piano concerto 2
-Violin concerto transcribed for piano
I suppose most people will go for the Emperor, but I find that the 4th and the violin conc. have slightly more musical substance, are more moving and withstand repeated hearings better. I went for the violin concerto ahead of the 4th because of the slow movements. The 'animal taming' idea in the 4th is nice, but the violin concerto has more beautiful melodic material and is more moving.
The piano transcription of the violin concerto is a waste of space. Beethoven only did this for the money and didn't adapt the violin writing for piano. It's the sort of piece one listens to once only, out of curiosity.
Anybody heard Pletnev's clarinet transcription of the violin conc?