Joseph Joachim’s first Beethoven cadenza rediscovered

Abstract Joseph Joachim’s 1844 performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto under Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was not only a career-defining moment for the 12-year-old prodigy, but also a watershed in the popular acceptance of the work. Until now, the first-movement cadenza he played on this occasion, and in subsequent performances until 1851, has been known only from brief excerpts totalling nine bars. This article reports on the discovery of the complete 64-bar cadenza in the autograph album of Julius Rietz, under whom Joachim played the concerto in 1848, and a further version preserved in Willem Willeke’s collection of music. An analysis of the cadenza offers clues about its genesis and permits a comparison with Joachim’s later Beethoven cadenzas, which have remained among the most popular for the concerto.