Cadenzas in Mozart Piano Concertos

[Nick Armstrong]

the appropriateness or otherwise of cadenzas and how they should be written.

...
but, in the end, the performance for which I'd been asked to write it (which I understand would have been the work's Italian première) got cancelled

Interesting, ah. What approach did you take, stylistically? Medtner-style or something contrasting?

And I hope the cheque (lire presumably) wasn't cancelled as well...?

[Nick Armstrong]

Is this ABennett's follow-up to Kafka's Dick, Caliban

There's no answer to that!

[ahinton]

Interesting, ah. What approach did you take, stylistically? Medtner-style or something contrasting?

A little of both, really, though rather more of a personal take on Medtner's own style than anything else, I guess.

[Nick Armstrong]

A little of both, really, though rather more of a personal take on Medtner's own style than anything else, I guess.

As a Medtner fan: congrats! Shame it never saw the light of day...

[ahinton]

As a Medtner fan: congrats! Shame it never saw the light of day...

As another(!), thank you very much - and you never know your (bad?) luck, it might surface somewhere else some day!

[Andrew Preview]

And would a Beethoven cadenza in a Mozart concerto be ‘OK’ hipp-wise?

I recall Charles Hazlewood complaining that Beethoven's cadenza for the first movement of K466 was anachronistic, seeming to come "from another world". He favoured a modern pastiche.

In purely chronological terms, the young Beethoven must have written his cadenza within spitting distance of Mozart's lifetime. Stylistically, it's never seemed to me to be that far removed from the concerto, which sounds very forward looking even in a classically restrained performance.

[David-G]

I have heard Robert Levin play a number of the Mozart concerti with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He always improvises the cadenzas, in true Mozartian style, and with an astonishing display of bravura virtuosity. These are true improvisations, and always very exciting; I understand from the orchestra that through the rehearsals, and then in the performances, the cadenzas are different every time.

[verismissimo]

I’m wondering what the HIPP view of cadenzas is?

The obvious answer is that cadenzas that go outside the span of the pianos in Mozart's time (like the Britten) would simply be unplayable in an HIPP performance on a Walter, Broadwood etc.

BTW I love Levin's improvised cadenzas live. Haven't heard him in a recording.