# Favorite cadenzas



## Guest (Feb 1, 2011)

I would have made a poll for this topic, but there are so many choices that I wouldn't know where to begin. I got to thinking about this as I was listening to Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto: the first movement has the most epic cadenza ever! Rach 3 also has an impressive cadenza. So, I'll ask you all what your favorite cadenzas are?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)




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## Lipatti (Oct 9, 2010)

Alkan knows how to do them.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

I love the cadenza of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1, which takes up the whole movement. It was one of the most moving cadenzas I had ever heard when I saw it live for the first time.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I made a thread about this very topic a while back:

http://www.talkclassical.com/8986-favourite-cadenzas.html


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

Jeff N said:


> I got to thinking about this as I was listening to Prokofiev's 2nd Piano Concerto: the first movement has the most epic cadenza ever! Rach 3 also has an impressive cadenza.


Well you certainly picked the two hardest cadenzas in the standard repertoire!


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## clair de lune (Jan 25, 2011)

I like the Rach 3 and the one from Brahms violin concerto.


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## YsayeOp.27#6 (Dec 7, 2007)

clair de lune said:


> I like the Rach 3 and the one from Brahms violin concerto.


Which one?


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2011)

Andre said:


> I made a thread about this very topic a while back


Oops, my bad! I guess this will just serve as an update...



clair de lune said:


> Brahms violin concerto


Yes, the cadenza at the end of the first movement is fantastic.


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## Wicked_one (Aug 18, 2010)

I really like Beethoven's Violin Concerto cadenza in which all the themes are played in the same time or something like that, it's crazy. I've heard it once and I've been blown away. Totally.


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

Mendelssohn's VC and Dvorak's Cello Concerto are favorites.


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## YsayeOp.27#6 (Dec 7, 2007)

Jeff N said:


> Yes, the cadenza at the end of the first movement is fantastic.


Which one?


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## YsayeOp.27#6 (Dec 7, 2007)

Wicked_one said:


> I really like Beethoven's Violin Concerto cadenza in which all the themes are played in the same time or something like that, it's crazy. I've heard it once and I've been blown away. Totally.


That's the Kreisler cadenza, I guess.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I'm going to bump this since it's a nice topic.
My favorite piano cadenzas: Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto (in the 1st movement, I think he added the cadenza some years later, after the concerto was finished) and Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand (including the small one).
For violin, the totally wild and maniac cadenza in Ligeti's Violin Concerto.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja's performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto is well worth checking out. She uses the cadenza Beethoven wrote for the piano transcription of the concerto, back-transcribed for the violin and (thankfully) somewhat abbreviated. A duet with the tympani! Her cadenzas elsewhere and in the last movement, often interpolated in odd places, are also great.


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Does anybody improvise their cadenzas anymore? I'd be interested to hear a performance.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

In my opinion the greatest cadenzas are Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 (ossia--this is the greatest cadenza in the greatest concerto) and Paganini's 1st violin concerto.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Tristan said:


> In my opinion the greatest cadenzas are Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 (ossia--this is the greatest cadenza in the greatest concerto) and Paganini's 1st violin concerto.


Rachmaninoff wrote two which one do you prefer, the short or the long ?


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

The cadenza of the Grieg gets me every time, for one.


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Schnittke's cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto. It was my first recording of the work (Kremer/Marriner, ASMF) and at that point I was still unfamiliar with Schnittke's work. Quite an unexpected turn. But a marvellous way of freshing up an old war horse.


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## DavidH (May 12, 2013)

Check out this amazing 1906 (seriously) piano-roll recording of Beethoven's 4th by Eugen D'Albert. He plays the both solo & orchestra on the keyboard, and it's so different from what we hear today from most players.

Recording link.

His own first-moment cadenza from around 12:56.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

For piano: Prokofiev 2, 1st movement

For violin: Elgar, 3rd movement

I haven't really decided which is my favourite cello cadenza.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

DavidH said:


> Check out this amazing 1906 (seriously) piano-roll recording of Beethoven's 4th by Eugen D'Albert. He plays the both solo & orchestra on the keyboard, and it's so different from what we hear today from most players.
> 
> Recording link.
> 
> His own first-moment cadenza from around 12:56.


The great Elly Ney always used D'Albert's cadenza.


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## GodNickSatan (Feb 28, 2013)

How about the cadenza in the first movement of the violin concerto by Brahms?


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## treeza (May 7, 2014)

I like Rach 3 but I don't like THAT cadenza.
Beethoven's got some good ones.


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

Yeah, the cadenza in Beethoven's violin concerto's first movement is pretty good.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My favorite cadenza is the one Beethoven wrote for the first movement of Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto in d minor.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

shangoyal said:


> Yeah, the cadenza in Beethoven's violin concerto's first movement is pretty good.


Except the most popular first movement cadenza was written by Fritz Kreisler, not Beethoven.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

hpowders said:


> Except the most popular first movement cadenza was written by Fritz Kreisler, not Beethoven.


Yes, Fritz's is the most popular by far, a special treat all by itself. Beethoven never wrote a cadenza for his violin concerto, but he wrote one for the version he made as a piano concerto. That cadenza is sometimes transcribed back to use in the violin concerto. It's interesting because it includes a substantial part for the kettledrums, the only example I know of from the classical period where the solo instrument is joined by another in the cadenza. (Remember that the concerto opens with solo tympani.)

A version of Beethoven's cadenza is used in the excellent recording of the violin concerto by Patricia Kopatchinskaja.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

My favorite cadenzas:
Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto,
Prokofiev's 2nd,
and the longer version of the cadenza of Medtner's 2nd




(skip to 10:45 in the vid above, it's the orchestral buildup and beginning of cadenza)


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