The violinist shares how writing her own cadenzas for her recording of Mozart concertos resulted in a deeper connection with both the composer and audiences
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The Mozart concertos have always been very dear to my heart since my early stages as a violinist. I remember coming to my first lesson on the Mozart Concerto no.1 in B flat major with my teacher at the time, Christian Tetzlaff, asking ’So which cadenza should I play?’ He looked at me and said, ’You should write your own of course!’
The cadenza aspect of a concerto is a very particular one. As I was taught, the idea behind a cadenza was to give the performer some freedom to show the understanding of a given piece (usually) without accompaniment, showing off both instrumental and musical skills.
As a classical musician, I’ve always approached the music I played with a sense of reverence for the composers and the works they’ve left behind.
So at first, the thought of composing my own cadenzas was both intimidating and intriguing, having always approached pieces as a performer, focused on interpreting and conveying the composers’ intentions, I had never imagined stepping into the role of a ’composer’ myself. However, this became a great passion of mine as I continued exploring the Mozart concertos.
Considering I composed my cadenzas at a similar age Mozart was when he wrote KV207 and KV211, I tried to connect and even relate on a deeper level to the youthful energies and visions of Wolfgang Amadeus. I slowly began to realise the creative process behind such compositions; in a way crafting my own cadenza felt like a dialogue with the composer himself. I remember playing around Mozart’s beautiful themes, it was both such an exciting and profoundly inspiring experience.
When writing these cadenzas, I began by marking all the different themes in the movement and then started to improvise around them. I would at first embellish the themes carefully, ensuring I had a strong understanding of their characters and nuances, before gradually distancing myself into more elaborate variations. I used my phone to record myself while drifting off into long improvisations, that way I could ensure no loss of spontaneous ideas. I would then listen to it some days after, to evaluate from a new perspective and maybe highlight the areas that I felt had the most potential. Finally, I managed to connect my ideas better, ultimately creating longer and more developed lines.
I began composing the first cadenza when Covid-19 hit Europe. After the first weeks, I desperately wanted to escape both emotionally and physically the confinement, but the latter being impossible, I decided to try honouring the genius of Mozart in my own humble way; writing was my silver lining; As I started, I felt carried away by an unprecedented enthusiasm…
But this being my first ever experience writing any music, I had to go through many different stages.
My first attempts were technically very demanding and included many unnecessary and redundant virtuosic features. I started to slowly realise it as I would play it out loud and struggle with my own endless double-stops and arpeggios.
The pandemic made it more difficult to show my work to people but I still managed to present some of these first drafts to musicians that I highly respect.
With their advice, I understood that my elaborate technicality maybe overshadowed the inherent beauty of the original themes and my overcomplicated interpretation was too far from the pure and genuine writing of Mozart himself.
I then began to cut all excesses down to the most essential: what message did I want to deliver, what connected me to this music in the first place?
I slowly managed to adjust and refine those drafts into something I became much prouder of. The Rondo in B-Flat Major was originally supposed to be the last movement of the B-Flat concerto KV207, but it seems like Mozart decided to publish it later as a separate work. This is the reason why I decided to place it right after the first concerto on the recording. I tried to connect the cadenza of the Rondo to the one of the last movement. They both start with a powerful and heroic energy.
I started to work on the cadenzas of the second Concerto KV 211 a little later, and I remember it being already a very different experience. Some aspects of my life started to drastically change and new inspirations flooded in. It was a more continuous and straightforward process. It seemed to me like the first naive bursts of excitement got replaced by something more ‘serioso’, with more tension overall.
I performed my first-ever written cadenza publicly just two months before recording it for the CD. The experience was exciting, though also nerve-wracking as I was intrigued to see how the audience would react.
Over the following three concerts, I had the chance to refine my cadenza even further. During one performance, I spontaneously altered a small detail, and to my surprise, it felt so natural and fitting that I decided to keep it. That subtle change became part of the final version I recorded.
Composing these cadenzas gave me the opportunity to connect with my audience in a deeply personal way. I always felt that performing traditional cadenzas that were written by others was a bit more distant. Playing my cadenzas I was able to share a piece of myself with the audience, inviting the listeners to experience the music through my own lens so to say.
Through this experience of writing, my approach to practising and performing has changed. Unlike rehearsing a score where the focus is on precision and interpretation, working on my own cadenzas demanded another level of storytelling. This process taught me to approach even an established repertoire with a sense of curiosity and a new creative perspective each time I play it.
Lir Vaginsky’s album of Mozart violin concertos nos. 1 and 2 plus Arvo Pärt’s Piano Trio ‘Mozart-Adagio’ is out now on Orchid Classics. Watch the album trailer here:
Read: Violinist Veronika Eberle on performing new Beethoven Violin Concerto cadenzas
Read: Dominik Wagner and Patricia Kopatchinskaja on writing their own cadenzas
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