It is a bit surprising that what composer
Joerg Widmann attempts here hasn't been done more often.
Widmann furnishes a set of three new cadenzas, in his own idiom, for
Beethoven's
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, and this has proven intriguing enough to listeners to propel the album, featuring violinist
Veronika Eberle and the
London Symphony Orchestra under
Sir Simon Rattle, onto classical best-seller charts in 2023. After all, violinists and composers since
Beethoven's time have devised their own cadenzas for the work.
Widmann's are in a more modernist language, but they are not different in kind from earlier attempts. Listeners will make up their own minds about the results, but here are some things to keep in mind.
Widmann's contributions are hefty, beefing the concerto up to more than 52 minutes.
Widmann describes his method this way: "Nothing was to overshadow the original, and yet I wanted to create a completely new tonal cosmos in which
Beethoven's themes could appear in a very different light." In a way, they are cadenzas but looked at another way, the end result might be described as a
Beethoven fantasy. He also introduces links, not just with the main material of each movement but between his cadenzas and with the main material of the work as a whole.
Widmann adds a good deal of virtuosity, and violinist
Eberle not only does well with the new material but also smooths the way from
Beethoven with a virtuosa reading of the concerto's violin part, with almost whispered high notes and muscular passagework. Lastly, the performers do well to include
Beethoven's fragmentary and rarely played fragmentary
Violin Concerto in C major, WoO 4, written between 1790 and 1792. The performers don't use any of the available completions of this first movement but instead let it drop out as it ends in
Beethoven's manuscript, and what strikes one in this context is how ambitious the 21-year-old's work was at this early stage. Whatever one may conclude here,
Eberle,
Widmann, and company certainly offer food for thought. ~ James Manheim
![Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 [1951]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/7318599990606_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 [1951]")
