Beethoven Eberle

Ludvig van Beethoven’s (1770–1827) Violin Concerto was performed for the first time in Vienna in 1806. In a time when the world was shaken by the Napoleonic wars, the concerto starts with five tentative strikes to the timpani, faintly echoing the cacophony of war. The opening motive runs like a red thread through the whole of the first movement, which upended conventions on what a concerto could be.

The violin concerto did not become popular before the 1840s, when the young star violinist Joseph Joachim performed it with cadenzas – solo parts for the violin – he had composed himself. Since then, many others have written their own cadenzas for the piece. Those performed here are composed by Jörg Widmann especially for our soloist, Veronika Eberle, and she performs them with double bass player Kenneth Ryland and timpanist Christopher Lane.

(Translation from Norwegian: Sarah Osa)