Concert review: Veronika Eberle (violin) London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle

Before the Beethoven anniversary of 2020, which of us could say they knew Beethoven wrote two violin concertos? Or at least intended to – he apparently abandoned a C major first movement in mid-air around the time of writing the Second Piano Concerto. Cushioned by a slimline but still rich LSO string tone, expanding to fill LSO St Luke’s, the eight-minute fragment flowed with practised Mozartian ease except for certain giveaway Beethovenian harmonic thumbprints.

Veronika Eberle brings a spotlessly pure and serene tone to her Beethoven playing, as I recall from a memorably spacious account of the D major Concerto which she gave with Rattle six years ago. This reprise was longer still, not on account of their tempos – which have tightened up slightly while still projecting remarkable breadth and calm – but through the bold and exploratory new cadenzas commissioned from Jörg Widmann.

The mood of the vast cadenza for the Allegro begins by taking its cue from the G minor episode where Beethoven not only introduces a sublime element but also derails the unruffled D major progress of the movement. Then Widmann introduces not only the timpani that Beethoven had smuggled into his own cadenza for his piano-concerto transcription of the concerto, but also a double bass. The cadenza quotes not only from the first movement but also the finale, contriving to sound fully like both Beethoven and Widmann, as do similarly wide-ranging insertions in the other movements.

Still hand in glove in their approach, Eberle and Rattle brought a numbed stillness to the Largo, into which Widmann’s uncanny, ethereal cadenza dovetailed quite naturally, developing into a dialogue with the LSO’s leader. The finale brought more war-music as well as tavern-band humour in the return of the double bass. When the LSO Live album of the concert appears, it should make for essential listening.

PETER QUANTRILL