Beethoven's Violin Concerto -- and Antje Weithaas

Ludwig van Beethoven's one and only concerto for violin and orchestra is something of a strange beast. Written in 1806, it is stranded between classical, 18^th century concertos, and the romantic, 19^th century. Beethoven was not a violinist, and his concerto is very much for violin and orchestra. It can be played as a left-over from the 18^th century, or as a precursor of the 19^th. For me, it makes sense as a concerto written in 1799 + 7, which may be why I almost always prefer it played by classical German violinists such as: Erich Röhn, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Georg Kulenkampff, Adolf Busch, Katrin Scholz ... and a few others among the 87 on my shelf.

I currently have 87 recordings of the concerto, having evicted many. Violinists on my shelves begin, alphabetically, with Kristof Barati, and end with Frank Peter Zimmermann. Today I listened to it played by Antje Weithaas, a classical German violinist, if ever there were one. The Sinfonieorchester Leipzig was conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, and the performance (off-air) took place in the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 10^th February 2019. The first movement was played as a true allegro (ma non troppo). The balance between violin and orchestra was excellent, and this was a concerto for violin and orchestra (such as the one with Erich Röhn and the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Furtwängler). All kudos to Mäkelä and the Leipzigers. The performance would have earned my three stars, were it not for the cadenzas throughout (including the first movement). After Beethoven, composers learned to supervise cadenzas (Mendelssohn with David, Brahms with Joachim, Khachaturian and Shostakovich with Oistrakh). Beethoven left no violin cadenzas, so we are at the mercy of fashion, novelty, and notoriety. If I had the energy, I'd re-burn the Weithaas CD to put the cadenzas on separate tracks so I could press “skip” each time.