Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Arcangelo Corelli - 'La Folia' for Viola: Variation 24 - Cadenza
Difficulty: --/5
October 3, 2020
Day 16 of a video journal of me attempting the theme and its 24 variations of Arcangelo Corelli's 'La Folia' op. 5, no. 12 for viola and piano.
I can't believe this is the end of the piece! There isn't really much to variation 24. It isn't even really a variation given that the theme doesn't match up with it. What is written is actually only 3 measures long before it gets to the suggested cadenza.
A bit of history on the cadenza. There is a written cadenza in this sheet music and the last handful of measures I play here have those notes but most of the stuff before was "written" by me while borrowing inspiration from two sources. The first source: a recording of a Mozart concerto for 3 pianos played by Paul Gulda, Rico Gulda, and Martha Argerich where Martha plays at the end a cadenza based on an entirely different Mozart piano concerto for a single piano. It got me thinking "Hey, I could probably do something similar with Corelli's other works!"
The second source of inspiration is back where this all started. Corelli is my absolute favorite composer. It stems from when, as a child, I heard my older brother's orchestra playing a, then, unidentified concerto grosso number 8 by Corelli. It wasn't until much later that I heard and immediately recognized it in high school when I got to play the piece. I went out and bought a 2 CD set of his 12 concerto grossi. The group that played it is the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Angerer (VoxBox Album). It also happens to be the best interpretation that I've ever heard of those works. They do things with the music that I've heard no other group do since. I can't even find these recordings online.
This cadenza I played is similar to something the concert master does during an otherwise uneventful Adagio during Corelli's concerto grosso 12 in F Major. The concert master plays this beautiful solo that I've never heard anyone else do. No other group has improvised so much during that movement (or the other concerti). They elect to play it straight with no embellishments or solis. So I've been living with that solo in my heart since high school and I'm glad I finally get a chance to play it here!
I cut out shortly before the actual solo would have ended with the movement so that I may segue back into the written cadenza which, while it has the same notes, I changed to tempo and rhythm. It calls for straight 16th notes and I play it a bit more freely with pauses and fermatas. Apologies to the editors.
This may be the last variation but I still have at least one more recording to do!
Part edited by F. David.
Transcribed by F. Hermann
Arcangelo Corelli - 'La Folia' for Viola: Variation 24 - Cadenza
Difficulty: --/5
October 3, 2020
Day 16 of a video journal of me attempting the theme and its 24 variations of Arcangelo Corelli's 'La Folia' op. 5, no. 12 for viola and piano.
I can't believe this is the end of the piece! There isn't really much to variation 24. It isn't even really a variation given that the theme doesn't match up with it. What is written is actually only 3 measures long before it gets to the suggested cadenza.
A bit of history on the cadenza. There is a written cadenza in this sheet music and the last handful of measures I play here have those notes but most of the stuff before was "written" by me while borrowing inspiration from two sources. The first source: a recording of a Mozart concerto for 3 pianos played by Paul Gulda, Rico Gulda, and Martha Argerich where Martha plays at the end a cadenza based on an entirely different Mozart piano concerto for a single piano. It got me thinking "Hey, I could probably do something similar with Corelli's other works!"
The second source of inspiration is back where this all started. Corelli is my absolute favorite composer. It stems from when, as a child, I heard my older brother's orchestra playing a, then, unidentified concerto grosso number 8 by Corelli. It wasn't until much later that I heard and immediately recognized it in high school when I got to play the piece. I went out and bought a 2 CD set of his 12 concerto grossi. The group that played it is the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Angerer (VoxBox Album). It also happens to be the best interpretation that I've ever heard of those works. They do things with the music that I've heard no other group do since. I can't even find these recordings online.
This cadenza I played is similar to something the concert master does during an otherwise uneventful Adagio during Corelli's concerto grosso 12 in F Major. The concert master plays this beautiful solo that I've never heard anyone else do. No other group has improvised so much during that movement (or the other concerti). They elect to play it straight with no embellishments or solis. So I've been living with that solo in my heart since high school and I'm glad I finally get a chance to play it here!
I cut out shortly before the actual solo would have ended with the movement so that I may segue back into the written cadenza which, while it has the same notes, I changed to tempo and rhythm. It calls for straight 16th notes and I play it a bit more freely with pauses and fermatas. Apologies to the editors.
This may be the last variation but I still have at least one more recording to do!
Part edited by F. David.
Transcribed by F. Hermann
