Robert D. Levin

Cadenzas To Mozart's Violin Concertos

The present cadenzas and lead-ins to Mozart's five violin concertos K 207, 211, 216, 218 and 219 attempt to present the violinist with stylistic and idiomatic solutions based upon the compositional technique of Mozart's piano concerto cadenzas. In the 18th century cadenzas were always improvised by the great composer-performers. In order to approximate the spirit of improvisation, at least two versions are always offered for each fermata. Beyond that, a maximum number of combinatorial possibilities have been purposefully built in. Thus, the player can assemble many different cadenzas from the basic alternatives. (Robert D. Levin)