ISSUES IN LATE CLASSICAL VIOLIN CONCERTO LITERATURE: HISTORICALLY INFORMED CADENZAS, THE CONCERTO IN E-FLAT, K. 268 ATTRIBUTED TO MOZART, AND BEETHOVEN’S UNFINISHED CONCERTO MOVEMENT IN C, WOO5

Teaching the stylistic aspects of Classical era violin literature in a systematic way is a relatively recent endeavor in drastic need for readily accessible material. One of the goals of this document is to propose applicable and historically informed solutions to Classical era concertos that lack written-out cadenzas by the composer. Two problematic works \n--a speculative violin concerto attributed to Mozart, and an authentic and fully-orchestrated fragment of a projected violin concerto by Beethoven--work effectively as sources for stylistic information and preparation for the authentic concertante works by these composers. They also provide adventuresome violinists with fresh opportunities to craft original cadenzas. \nThe document’s three studies address issues of style, performance, and authorship present in authentic, spurious, and incomplete works for solo violin and orchestra of the late Classical era (ca. 1780-1800). The first essay presents different solutions available for composing, selecting, and modifying existing cadenzas for Mozart’s authentic violin concertos (K. 207, 211, 216, 218, and 219). Since Mozart did not write out his own cadenzas for these works, and the art of in situ improvisation in the Classical style has virtually disappeared from the concert stage, most soloists perform lengthy, virtuosic cadenzas by renowned late Romantic virtuosos and pedagogues such as Joseph Joachim, Leopold Auer, and Sam Franko, who do not always follow a stylistically appropriate approach. \nThe second essay explores the origins, authorship claims, and inherent musical value of Mozart’s Violin Concerto in E-Flat, K. 268, a problematic work almost unanimously dismissed by scholars. Commonly attributed to Mannheim-born violinist and composer Johann Friedrich Eck (ca. 1766-1810), Mozart’s “sixth” concerto, for all its obvious deficiencies in its current form and lack of autograph sources, nevertheless constitutes a rare and effective example of late eighteenth-century violin concerto writing in the tradition of the Franco-Belgian school led by Viotti and Rode, and as such a precursor to the violin concertos of Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859). K. 268 ultimately helps bridge the stylistic gap between Mozart’s authentic masterworks and Beethoven’s monumental Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (1806). \nThe third study compares four different attempts to finish a youthful fragment (259 bars) of a projected violin concerto composed by Beethoven prior to his departure for Vienna. The composer did leave us a “torso” that includes the full exposition and part of the development of a sonata form concertante movement in C major. We now have four completed versions, by one of Beethoven’s acquaintances (the German violinist and composer Joseph Hellmesberger), early twentieth-century Spanish violinist Juan Manen, noted Beethoven scholar Wilfried Fischer, and Dutch composer Cees Nieuwenhuizen, a specialist in completing unfinished works by Beethoven. They all provide apt and wonderfully inventive solutions, thus enabling violinists to perform a work that can help prepare students for Beethoven’s completed concerto.