Re: GG: Beethoven's the Second Concerto

[Tim Conway <timcon@comswest.net.au>]

><< Here's what I think of a cadenza:
>
>An extended virtuosic (or unusually "musical") section for the
>soloist near the end of a movement of a concerto. >>
>
>Does that mean then that Gould wrote additions to works by Beethoven and 
>others?

No doubt Bradley will give us the definitive word, but my music master at 
school said that the cadenza was a solo section in a concerto usually 
sketched in by the composer (basic chord sequences, key changes and the 
like) so that the performer had something to go by. You didn't have to 
vary what the composer had sketched in but it was usually better to do so 
because the sketched music was pretty boring (although I think some 
composers wrote pretty good cadenzas and expected performers to stick 
rigidly to them).

It seems that many performers strayed from this path and played whatever 
they liked (maybe they still do). They could do this, and even make up 
stuff on the spur of the moment -- just like jazz musicians -- provided 
they returned to the game plan at the end of the cadenza so that the 
orchestra and conductor would know when to join in and continue the 
written music.

So, yes, anyone who writes a cadenza is adding to the composer's music, 
but with his permission. I think performers 200 years ago expected to be 
allowed to show off their virtuosity to build up a following. Nowadays 
you can do that by broadcasts and recordings, but before the gramophone 
was invented one could show off only in public performances.

Over to Bradley. 

Tim Conway
Broome, WA, Oz