Beethoven Violin Concerto, Op. 61 (cadenza Widmann); Violin Concerto in C, WoO 5 – fragment Veronika Eberle (violin); London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle LSO Live LSO 5094 (CD/SACD) 60:59 mins
A major point of interest in Veronika Eberle’s performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto is the new cadenzas written for her by the clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann. Beethoven didn’t leave any himself, but when he hurriedly transcribed the concerto’s solo part for piano he added some truly wild and wacky cadenzas. In the case of the first movement, he even had the pianist joined by timpani, echoing the drum-taps which famously begin the work. Beethoven’s piano cadenzas plainly won’t work on the violin, but Widmann seems to have taken his cue from them, and he has the soloist accompanied not only by timpani, but also by a double bass. His cadenzas mainly use material from the Concerto as though refracted through the distance of time, and he draws all three movements together by quoting material from each in each cadenza. Eberle plays these new contributions with dazzling virtuosity, and her live performance of the Concerto itself with Simon Rattle and the LSO has just the right amount of warmth and expressive freedom.
As a bonus, Eberle offers an incomplete violin concerto movement which probably dates from the tail-end of Beethoven’s early period in Bonn. His surviving manuscript (its continuation, if there was one, has been lost) breaks off midway through the opening movement, and although one or two attempts at a completion have been made since its discovery in the late 19th century, Rattle and Eberle present the fragment as it stands, breaking off mid-phrase.
Misha Donat
