Haydn Cadenza Every Day

A series of Instagram reels recorded between January and April of 2022

On many occasions I have written about the importance of free improvisation within the classical and contemporary classical music, and the necessity to educate music conservatory students in this regard. So, when asked to play Haydn with the symphony orchestra of the Banja Luka music academy (which was to be my first Haydn performance with an orchestra in over a decade) I decided to put my money where my mouth is and to finally play a completely improvised cadenza.

The only issue was: how can I prove to anybody that it was actually improvised?

So I decided to improvise a cadenza every day for two months leading up to the concert, and post them all online so everyone can see that it was actually different every time. I also made a point to always record and post the first, raw version of the day even if it didn’t turn out too flattering; in hope that the pressure of posting possibly embarrassing performances online will mimic the pressure of the concert situation where I would also have to get it “right” the first time.

That’s how the Instagram profile “haydn_cadenza_every_day” was born

It didn’t attract too much audience (my bald face is definitely more suited for radio than for Instagram), I also didn’t care to advertise it too much; but there was still quite enough following to serve the purpose of the experiment.

There were ups and downs but I believe that there is a general feeling of improvement; at first it sounded more like throwing meaningless passages around, as when warming up; but with time there was more feeling of an overall structure. I made 60 videos, even though I’m still not perfectly satisfied with some things. For instance: As my brain CPU is processing at 100% capacity, trying to figure out what happens next; remembering to leave some breathing spaces between the phrases was very difficult. The videos from the practice rooms were always feeling too rushed. I guess, for social media and the short attention spans, the lack of breathing pauses is quite welcome, but I hoped I would be able to turn on the “artist” in the concert situation at least, and leave some space for dramaturgical effect.

Turns out I was wrong, and the versions in front of the audience were just as rushed as the ones in the practice room. So this is something I’d still like to improve in the future (if I get booked to play Haydn somewhere again)

Here’s a random selection of 8 videos from different stages, including an April-fools post on April 1st, where I spontaneously decided to break the mold and play a cadenza from the Goedicke Concerto (which is one of my favorite written cadenzas from any trumpet concerto) but dissolving the last trill into Eb major, for the imaginary Haydn ending.

January 29th
Some early successes