An elaborate solo found near the end of a movement in a concerto is called a cadenza and written either by the composer or improvised by the performer. Until the 19th century, performers were expected ...

Julian Rachlin was performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto on his beautiful Stradivarius violin with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra when he stopped the show with this jaw-dropping cadenza ...

Twenty minutes into the first movement of Beethoven’s violin concerto, the motif — four sixteenth notes rising up in pitch, then a fifth descending, ushering in another string of notes to echo the ...

Barton Pine discusses her historic violin and approach to writing personal cadenzas. Rachel Barton Pine discusses her collaboration with the La Crosse Symphony and Maestro Alexander Platt, her 1742 ...

THE BASICS: JoAnn Falletta conducts the first of a two-weekend Beethoven festival, featuring the BPO’s Concert Master, violinist Nikki Chooi in Beethoven’s Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra ...

Hear excerpts from some famous (and infamous) cadenzas. This year's topic is gravy. Just as a flavorful gravy enhances any holiday bird, Hoffman says that cadenzas are the tasty solos composers fold ...

What does it take to get up on stage at Symphony Hall—or even at a school recital? There’s talent involved, of course, but there’s also confidence, built up by hours and hours of practice. For most ...

Here's an example of a moment with which every classical music lover is familiar: There comes a point in virtually every concerto from the classical period when the orchestra comes to a sudden halt ...

Audiences love Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor for its warmth and frequent pyrotechnics. The concerto also features playful innovations that would have shocked—or delighted—the audience at ...

Augustin Hadelich's latest album of violin concertos offers two unlikely bedfellows. The tuneful, romantic classic by Johannes Brahms bumps up against the modernist mayhem of György Ligeti. The album, ...

The "David" Guarneri del Gesu -- the renowned $6 million violin once played by Jascha Heifetz -- made a glorious debut in Davies Symphony Hall on Wednesday night during the opening gala of the San ...