Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major op.61, facsimile edition / Konzert für Violine und Orchester, D-dur, opus 61, faksimileausgabe

The Violin Concerto in D Major of Ludwig van Beethoven—probably the most famous of all violin concerti—has a complicated history. Written on rather short notice for his friend Fanz Clement in late 1806, and completed only hours before the concert was to begin (sight read by Clement according to some sources), the work was nearly forgotten until its rediscovery in 1844 by the vituoso Josef Joachim, who performed it with various orchestras conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. No violin cadenzas were written by Beethoven though cadenzas were written by him for the piano version published shortly after the 1808 edition for violin. It is one of the most fascinating Beethoven autographs, since it not only shows the usual corrections during and after the writing process, but also the first stages of the revisions of the violin solo part and the sketches of its transformation into a piano part. The faint colors of the main text in the autograph score—mat brown on ivory paper—and the latter autograph additions with strong ink, red crayon and pencil, reproduced here with utmost fidelity, allow scholar and musician alike to take a fascinating journey into the composer's creative process.