HAYDN CADENZA EVERY DAY
This was a little side-project of mine during the early 2022
You’re probably already familiar with my preaching about the importance of improvisation in classical music; so when asked to play Haydn with the school orchestra in Banja Luka (which was to be my first Haydn 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 you 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, but it has also become a bit of a routine and I was sure that this would fix itself once I have an audience in front of me (and turn on the “artist”). Turns out I was wrong, and the versions in front of the audience were just as rushed. So this is something I’d still like to improve in the future. (I’m a bit busy with other things right now, but I’m definitely planning to reactivate the project 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, 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.
You’re probably already familiar with my preaching about the importance of improvisation in classical music; so when asked to play Haydn with the school orchestra in Banja Luka (which was to be my first Haydn 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 you 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, but it has also become a bit of a routine and I was sure that this would fix itself once I have an audience in front of me (and turn on the “artist”). Turns out I was wrong, and the versions in front of the audience were just as rushed. So this is something I’d still like to improve in the future. (I’m a bit busy with other things right now, but I’m definitely planning to reactivate the project 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, 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 |
February 2nd
Sometimes I had to deal with only having a C-trumpet with me |
February 15th
Testing the Schagerl Vienna model in Mank |
March 17th
Slowly ripening |
March 29th
Yay, allergies! |
April 1st
April fools version. Wrong concerto |
April 8th
General rehearsal |
April 9th
Live in concert + TV |