Beethoven as Heard by the Romantics: A Study of Romantic-Style Cadenzas Composed to Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58 Orit Wolf Department of Musicology Ph.D. Thesis Submitted to the Senate of Bar-Ilan University Ramat-Gan, Israel October 2006 This work was carried out under the supervision of Professor Judit Frigyesi Department of Musicology, Bar-Ilan University Acknowledgements I would first like to express my most sincere gratitude to Prof. Judit Frigyesi for her extraordinary wisdom and magnificent ideas throughout the entire course of this dissertation. From its conception to its final completion she has been my most constructive critic and partner. Her enthusiasm, encouragement and faith are not so easily found these days. A special thanks for Dr. Pninah Kanovsky for her most professional editing work and constant support. Without her remarkable assistance, this work could never have been brought to its completion. I am also thankful to my true friend, Mr. Harald Fiedler, for his marvelous German translations, and to Dr. Duncan Irving, for finding me the most rare cadenzas with tremendous generosity. On a more personal level, I wish to express my love and gratitude to all my family and especially to my mother, Ruth, who has been so patient, supportive and helpful in every possible way to make this work become a reality. Table of Contents Abstract i Chapter I Introduction 1 1.1 The Concerto in the Nineteenth-Century and the Problem of the Cadenza 5 1.2 Literature Review 9 1.3 Scope and Methodology 14 Chapter II New Structural Ideas in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto 18 2.1 The Place of the Fourth Piano Concerto in Beethoven's Oeuvre 18 2.2 The Dramatization of the Contrast between Orchestra and Piano 20 2.3 Improvisatory Coda and Cadenza-like Writing 23 2.4 Unity across Movements 29 2.5 Integrity through Thematic Derivation: The Six "Elements" 33 2.6 The Ambiguous Function of the Second Movement 40 Chapter III The Cadenzas Composed By Beethoven 44 3.1 Historical Background 44 3.2 Stylistic Eclecticism and Conceptual Integrity in Beethoven’s Cadenzas 47 3.3 Beethoven's Cadenzas to his Fourth Piano Concerto in G major, Op.58 52 3.3.1 The Cadenzas for the First Movement 52 3.3.2 The Cadenzas for the Third Movement 55 Chapter IV Clara Schumann's Cadenzas for Beethoven's Concerto Op. 58 58 4.1 General Background 58 4.2 Clara Schumann's Cadenza for the First Movement 59 4.3 Clara Schumann's Cadenza for the Third Movement 65 Chapter V Johannes Brahms' Cadenzas for Beethoven's Concerto Op. 58 76 5.1 The Sources for Brahms' Cadenzas 76 5.2 Brahms' Cadenza for the First Movement 82 5.3 Brahms' Concept of the Cadenzas as a “Second Development” - 93 Comparisons with his Cadenzas to Mozart 5.4 Brahms' Cadenza for the Third Movement 95 5.5 Publishing Aspects of Brahms' Cadenzas and 100 the Question of Authenticity Chapter VI Ferruccio Busoni's Cadenzas for Beethoven's Concerto Op. 58 106 6.1 The Idea of the “Romantic Cadenza” as a Transcription 106 6.2 Busoni's Perception of a Cadenza 108 6.3 Busoni's Original Cadenzas 113 6.3.1 Busoni's Cadenza for the First Movement 114 6.3.2 Busoni's Cadenza for the Third Movement 124 Chapter VII Anton Rubinstein's Cadenzas for Beethoven's Concerto Op. 58 128 7.1 General Background and Major Influences 128 7.1.1 The Concept of the "Romantic Cadenza" through 132 Rubinstein's Fourth Piano Concerto 7.2 Rubinstein's Cadenza for the First movement of Beethoven's Op. 58 134 7.3 Rubinstein's Cadenza for the Third Movement 149 Chapter VIII The Cadenzas of the "Modernists": Tovey, Kempff, Medtner and Levin 162 8.1 Donald Tovey 162 8.1.1 Tovey's Cadenza for the First Movement 165 8.1.2 Tovey's Cadenza for the Third Movement 170 8.2 William Kempff 173 8.2.1 Kempff's Cadenza for the First Movement 175 8.2.2 Kempff's Cadenza for the Third Movement 181 8.3 Nicholas Medtner 184 8.3.1 Medtner's Cadenza for the First Movement 185 8.3.2 Medtner's Cadenza for the Third Movement 193 8.4 Robert Levin 199 8.4.1 The Cadenza as a Live Improvisation 199 Chapter IX Discussion and Summary 203 9.1 The Cadenza as a Place for a Dialogue between Performer 206 and Composer: Busoni and Levin 9.2 The Cadenza as a Fantasia-like Composition and its 208 Contribution to the Concerto's Dramatic Narrative: Rubinstein and Levin 9.3 The Structure of the Romantic Cadenza: a Second-Development 209 Section or a Piece within a Piece? 9.4 The Dual Potential of the Third-Movement Cadenza: an Episode 211 or an Integrating Factor for all Three Movements 9.5 The Third-Movement Cadenza as a Response to the 213 First-Movement Cadenza 9.6 The Decisions with regard to “Authenticity”: 216 What it Means and to What Extent it is a Relevant Demand Appendix 1: Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58 in G major: 218 List of Themes Appendix 2: List of Cadenzas to Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto 221 Appendix 3: Cadenzas' Analysis (1-16) 223 Appendix 4: Cadenzas' Scores: 250 Ludwig Van Beethoven's Cadenzas 251 Clara Schumann's Cadenzas 266 Johannes Brahms' Cadenzas 278 Ferruccio Busoni's Cadenzas 286 Anton Rubinstein's Cadenzas 292 Francis Tovey's Cadenzas 305 Wilhelm Kempff's Cadenzas 314 Nicholas Medtner's Cadenzas 320 Bibliography 332 Editions and Published Scores 342 א Hebrew Abstract Abstract The objective of this work is to examine how various Romantic composers viewed the function of the cadenza in general and how they dealt with the task of writing cadenzas for Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in particular. Until now, cadenzas have mostly been viewed as separate entities. They were analyzed according to accepted rules of cadenza writing which had been popular until the beginning of the nineteenth-century. The possibility of perceiving the cadenza as part of the concerto as a whole has not yet been addressed. Moreover, the idea of the cadenza reshaping the overall design of the concerto and affecting its thematic, harmonic, tonal structure and dramatic effect has not yet been considered. This study shows how Beethoven had already increased the importance of the cadenza and how the Romantic composers coped with those changes. Beethoven used the cadenza both as a tool to add an extra interpretation of the concerto and as a tool to enhance the integrity of the concerto. These two new functions of the cadenza created numerous challenges for Romantic composers who had to cope with the clash that emerged between styles and compositional concepts when a Beethoven concerto was performed with their Romantic-style cadenzas. They had to find the balance between delivering the ideas of the original concerto on the one hand and expressing their individual voice on the other hand. Apart from the six composed cadenzas which Beethoven wrote for his Fourth Piano Concerto, there are over forty composers who also wrote their own versions. The cadenzas chosen to be examined in this work are those by Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Ferruccio Busoni, Anton Rubinstein, Nicholas Medtner, Wilhelm Kempff, Francis D. Tovey and Robert Levin. This study discusses how each i composer perceived the cadenza in general and how each composer applied this perception in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in particular. Clara Schumann's major innovation was in incorporating thematic unity in the third-movement cadenza. By integrating the major themes of all three movements in the third-movement cadenza, she created a cyclic feel of the Concerto, as well as stylistic integrity with Beethoven's text. Medtner followed Clara Schumann's lead in unification between movements, but unlike Clara’s theme unification, his was a rhythmic unification – using rhythmic patterns to create a cyclic, integrated cadenza. Another major innovation was the structural freedom of choice that Medtner offered the performer, allowing him to personally decide upon the cadenza's inner structure. Both Tovey and Brahms used their first-movement cadenza as an opportunity to add a developmental section to the Concerto. Yet, whereas Brahms inserted his own voice, using manipulations of themes, modulations, and rapid changes in the harmonic language, Tovey chose to be rather conservative and remained loyal to a more Classical style. Busoni coped with the challenge of compositional integrity through the medium of performance. He viewed the cadenza as a platform for the performer, allowing him to suggest his own transcription of the piece. The performer thus becomes a co-composer, reshaping the overall result of the composition. For Busoni, it was only through the cadenza that the performer could achieve performance integrity with the rest of the concerto, since it served as a meeting point between the composer and the performer in action. Rubinstein's uniqueness was in his use of non-thematic material to convey drama on the one hand and intimacy on the other. He contrasted recitative-style ii passages with lyrical themes from the movement, a technique which had not been used earlier by any other Romantic composer writing cadenzas to Beethoven’s concertos. Moreover, his cadenzas for the first and third movements of the Concerto are connected through the use of conflict and resolution, the first-movement cadenza presenting the conflict and the third-movement cadenza supplying the resolution. Unfortunately, the general practice in the 20th century was to look for an authentic cadenza, one that was similar to Beethoven’s style; either the style of the concertos or the style of his later composed cadenzas.