# Cadenzas in the piano concerto no. 4 by Beethoven



## snorkyller

Hello,

I have a question about cadenzas in the first movement of the piano concerto no. 4 from Beethoven.

It seems there is mainly 2 versions of this cadenza which appears at the end of the of the movement.
Just showing you examples:

First version, with Pollini, at 13:20

Second version, with Barenboin, at 15:40

Can you suggest me an album with the second version?
Have these two cadenzas been written by Beethoven?

Thank you! :tiphat:


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## kv466

One of my absolute favorite cadenzas, and Danny Boy does a pretty good job with it here but if you wanna hear it with twice the balls and beyond-belief precision, check this one out. I don't reckon there is a better execution of this concerto either on recording or in space.

Begins at 4:55


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## KenOC

Can't answer the OP's question, but from Wiki FWIW: "Cadenzas for the Fourth Piano Concerto have been written by a number of pianists and composers throughout its history; these include Beethoven himself (2 separate sets of cadenzas), Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Ferruccio Busoni, Hans von Bülow, Ignaz Moscheles, Camille Saint-Saëns, Anton Rubinstein, Wilhelm Kempff, Nikolai Medtner, Eugen d'Albert, Leopold Godowsky, Samuil Feinberg and Marc-Andre Hamelin."


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## snorkyller

kv466 said:


> One of my absolute favorite cadenzas, and Danny Boy does a pretty good job with it here but if you wanna hear it with twice the balls and beyond-belief precision, check this one out. I don't reckon there is a better execution of this concerto either on recording or in space.


The cadenza is surely incredibly played !!! I know that Gould had quick hands 

But I don't like when he's odd. Some chords seem to be arpeggiated. It's not how Beethoven wrote it.
Finally, too bad that the sound quality is not better. But well, it's a long time ago.

Thank you for this interesting suggestion


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## Novelette

Brahms composed two cadenzas for the G Major Concerto, which can be found on the album of Waltzes and Cadenzas as performed by Idel Biret.

Of the two, the first is the most interesting for me, being four times longer than the second and far more tonally substantial. Different cadenzas can radically change the character of an entire work!


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## DavidA

Kempff includes his own on his recordings.


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## DavidA

kv466 said:


> One of my absolute favorite cadenzas, and Danny Boy does a pretty good job with it here but if you wanna hear it with twice the balls and beyond-belief precision, check this one out. I don't reckon there is a better execution of this concerto either on recording or in space.
> 
> Begins at 4:55


One of the truly great recordings of this sublime work.


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## snorkyller

I found out that these two cadenzas were written by Beethoven.
Here's the partitions of these : partitions

The version played by Barenboin above, is displayed as the first version of Beethoven. So I wonder why it is so rarely played. Is it because it's too hard to play.

Thanks for your replies.
Bye


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## hreichgott

Here's Barenboim performing all of the Beethoven concertos, and he uses that cadenza on the recording too







Emanuel Ax used it on this recording







So did Schiff, here







Also Leon Fleisher







(Of a search for Beethoven's piano concerto no. 4 on Spotify, 5 out of the first 6 tracks I listened to had this cadenza!)
have fun!


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## snorkyller

Wow, thank you hreichgott

I can't wait to watch for these suggestions this weekend....


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## joen_cph

*Arthur Rubinstein* at least in his early recordings used Saint-Saens rarely heard, very expansive cadenza (12:43). This is the Beecham-recording 




The Rubinstein/Mitropoulos recording is even more engaged, but at times it has nasty sound.

Another interesting performance is by *Joseph Hofmann*, who uses Anton Rubinstein´s cadenza (12:14)





*Maria Yudina* uses Brahms` (3:40)


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## moody

Elly Ney used the Eugen d'Albert cadenza,but so few recordings supply the information.


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## flamencosketches

Is there a list anywhere of notable recordings of this work listed by cadenza used? If anyone knows of such a thing, it would be quite helpful for me.


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