CONCERTO CADENZAS AND LEAD-INS
Information for Teachers and Students
To help find and select specific concerto repertory consult:
Music for Piano & Orchestra: An Annotated Guide by Maurice Hinson: 1st edition, 1973, Indiana U. Press, ISBN 0253208351, Paperback, September 1993Ask your librarian, order from your favorite local bookstore, or search online.
Are you mystified as to how to write or improvise a concerto cadenza? Then ask your local librarian to help locate (or get a copy by interlibrary loan) the following article:
"Cadenzas in the Mozart Concertos" by Wolfgang Fetsch, Clavier magazine, December 1991, Vol. 30, No. 10, pp. 13–17.
Note especially the helpful listing of common figurations by Mozart on p. 17. Use these kinds of figurations to create your own imaginative cadenza(s)! Experiment with modulation, diminution, augmentation, mirror writing, inversions, sequences, motivic development, embellishing, etc. As a starting point, study various authentic cadenzas and lead–ins when available.
Listen to Robert Levin improvise beautifully in the style of the great classical composers (and play a bit of jazz!) on NPR's "Performance Today" – click on RealPlayer "Audio" at bottom (don't have RealPlayer? click here).
This remarkable 1999 interview covers the following:
• Bach English Suite Sarabandes, wherein Bach himself documents his manner of improvisatory embellishing.
• The difference between improvising and embellishing.
• The opening of Beethoven's improvisatory "Choral Fantasy," played by Levin on a period piano, followed by one of Levin's own alternate improvised openings.
• What is a cadenza?
• "Free" improvisation vs. communicating in the style of the composer.
• Mozart concerto # 17 with original Mozart cadenza, followed by an alternate improvised cadenza by Levin.
• Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea improvising on Mozart
• Gershwin and Ravel
• Levin's improvisation on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
• The future of improvisation in classical music education.
• Levin's improvisation on an NPR theme, in the style of Mozart.
Recommended recordings by: Robert D. Levin, keyboardist:
Mozart concerto recordings on Decca/Oiseau–Lyre:• K 271 & 414On NY Philomusica Records:
• K 386, 413 & 415
• K 456 & 459
• K 453 & 466
• K 482 & 488
• K 450 & 537
• K 175+382, 449, & 451
• Concertos 1–4, K 37, K 39–41• Mozart K453 on Steinway with the NY PhilomusicaBeethoven concerto recordings on DG Archive:• Concertos 1, 2 & Rondo WoO 6
• Concertos 3 & 4
• Concerto 5, Choral Fantasy and two improvised introductions to the fantasy
• There is also a 4–CD set with all of the above plus the world premiere recording of the chamber version of #4, with different improvised cadenzas.
Another wonderfully imaginative and spontaneous pianist is Malcolm Bilson (Mozart Concertos).
Stumped by just what a "lead–in" is? See the "Improvised Ornamentation" section of Chapter 7 in this book: Performance Practices in Classic Piano Music, by Sandra Rosenblum, ISBN 0–253–34314–3, 1988 Indiana University Press. Check your local library, order from your favorite local bookstore, or order online
For an easy–to–relate–to example of where and how a creative lead–in would work in music by Clementi (while this is not a concerto, it is instructive to see), see the footnote of p. 50 in:
The Classic Era: An Introduction to the Keyboard, Edited by Willard A. Palmer & Margery Halford, Alfred Publications, 1977, catalog # 1732.
You can order this Alfred music volume from any music store.
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This book is a must-read for all who wish to get in touch with our real traditions: "After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance" by Kenneth Hamilton Reviewer Susan Tomes writes: "Throughout the 'golden age' of Romantic piano-playing, it was not usual to perform whole sonatas as these were thought too severe. Improvisation was popular, as was the habit of 'preluding', or making up musical links between items. Players might give themselves breaks while they chatted with friends in the audience. Most pianists were also composers, and routinely included their own pieces. Playing from memory was not required, and sometimes even frowned on." In his book, Hamilton points out that "anxiety over wrong notes is a relatively recent psychosis, and playing entirely from memory a relatively recent requirement." |