As part of Project 13, I was listening to some cadenzas on the internet. Click on the title to listen the versions I got, and on the word “score” to get to the score I studied.
L. v. Beethoven – Piano Concerto No.3 in Cm,Op.37 – Allegro con brio
The cadenza Beethoven mentions in the score lasts 64 bars of a movement with a total of 507 (in the recording, 12’07”-14’58”). In this cadenza, the melodic and rhythmic motifs of the movement are presented. If we understand cadenza in a broader sense, there are some other moments in the movement in which we have “elaborated cadences”. At the beginning of the moment, several small elaborated cadences are present, in which the piano is often accompanied by the orchestra or alternates it in rather short intervals.
L. v. Beethoven – Violin Concerto in D,Op.61-Allegro ma non troppo
I’ve been loving this one for quite a few years now. My analysis of this one is going to be of the cadenza in the broader sense.
The first cadenza starts in the 3rd minute. Same as in the previous case, it is divided in two by a presentation of the theme by the soloist. There are other longer sections of cadential tension before the entrance of the orchestra in minutes 6, 8, 11, 13, 17 or 19-20. Needless to say, there are other tensions, shorter or longer, cadences or not. Allow me to mention just minutes 13-15. Also, at the end of minute 21, the violin does a long solo variation on the theme, presenting two motifs at once (which is actually the only cadenza as such Beethoven mentions in this tutti score, second last page, bar three, as a fermata with a trill, although for this audio version it was written by Fritz Kreisler).
J. Brahms – Violin Concerto in D, Op 77 – 1 Allegro non troppo
In the score, the candenze is just written with one word in bar 525, but then it lasts more than three minutes (from 19’25” till 22’34” in the link above)
W. A. Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488 – Allegro
The cadenza in this score is in bar 298 (I used another one for reading while listening, but there were no bar numbers on it). In the audio there’s a version of the cadenza supposedly written by Mozart himself, but I could not find the score for it.
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