Finally alone. Arrived in the cadenza, where in the classical solo concerto the soloist is allowed to freely switch and rule without an orchestra, also in Ludwig van Beethoven’s violin concerto. But Veronika Eberle does not remain alone for long in her new recording. The kettledrum protests and drives the violin into grotesque hunting motifs. Barely escaped, the double bass also lurks in wait, apparently dissatisfied with its rather modest role in Beethoven.
Blame it on the Munich composer Jörg Widmann. And Eberle herself, who only wanted to present her first solo recording under suitable conditions. After all, there are new CDs in abundance every year – and recordings of Beethoven’s only completed violin concerto with 119 violinists alone from the classical music streaming provider Idagio. Eberle, who studied with Ana Chumachenco at the Munich Music Academy as a young student and has since been heard live with many famous conductors and orchestras, was waiting. To the right partner, the brilliant idea. She finally found the former in Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, on whose in-house label the record was released. The latter in Jörg Widmann, who wrote her three new cadenzas for the three movements.
Cadenzas were once the place for free improvisation in the “Classic” – which unfortunately fewer and fewer performers dared and dare to do. That is why a number of famous violinists have already written down their cadenzas for Beethoven’s concerto, and composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns and Ferruccio Busoni have composed new ones. But the music business remains stubborn: almost always only those by Fritz Kreisler can be heard, which are now almost as canonical as Beethoven’s concerto itself.
Widmann breaks this monopoly, intelligently and with respect. After all, Beethoven himself gave the timpani an unusual role when he let them open his violin concerto. Widmann not only humorously takes up their eternal throbbing, but also connects all three cadenzas with Beethovenian material from all movements. One almost thinks one is hearing a story: in the (unusually extensive) cadenza to the second movement, the violin loses itself in the highest registers, climbing lonely into the eternal ice of the flageolette. She is gently accompanied back down by the concertmaster, the violin soloist of the orchestra. In order to find himself again in the company of timpanist and double bass player in the final movement. At the end, the highest and lowest string instruments agree on a quirky jazzy duet. After all, concertare originally also meant competition between instruments. Which works all the better here because the orchestral soloists of the London Symphony Orchestra play excellently with Beethoven.
Veronika Eberle shines on her Stradivari
Needless to say, Eberle is also an excellent soloist, with spotless intonation and a slim and delicate tone. She has waited long enough to be able to really fill every note on her Stradivarius, to enliven the tendrils of the runs and broken chords with clever phrasing, longer notes with internal dynamics. And Rattle remains taut in his conducting, enthusiastic about making music, without exuberant pathos. But the new cadenzas shape the concerto as a whole, making the second movement sound more lonely than usual.
At the end of the disc, Eberle even gives an encore: the fragment of the Violin Concerto in C major, which Beethoven had attempted when he was in his early twenties. It breaks off in the first sentence, just stops. Wouldn’t Widmann have come up with a sequel? We are waiting for the next joint project of the three.