Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

EVOLUTION DISTILLING MARÍADUEÑAS ADDS DYNAMIC NUANCE TOBEETHOVEN AND BEYOND BYKYLEMACMILLAN IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT the future, but María Dueñas appears destined for a consequential, enduring performing career. e -year-old Spanish violinist has already checked many of the boxes that signal a young artist on an extraordinary rise, includ- ing a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, a rst-place win at the Menuhin Competition, and a solo recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall two years ago. “Dueñas, who, in an industry always eager for the next prodigy, has emerged as something particularly special: a strong-willed young artist with some- thing to say, and the skill to say it brilliantly,” wrote music critic Joshua Barone in in the kind of extended New York Times pro le that most artists only dream of. Giving her a big boost was her debut album on DG, Beethoven and Be- yond , on which she presented more than simply another take on the composer’s Violin Concerto in D major, op. , to join the dozens upon dozen of record- ings that exist. Instead—as a key part of the “beyond”—she featured her own cadenzas for it, showing o her compos- ing talents and putting a more personal stamp on the work than would have been possible otherwise. “When the composer gives you the opportunity to write your own caden- zas for their great concertos, then you should take it,” Dueñas said in a interview in Strings magazine. “ e rst time I played the Beethoven concerto, I wrote my own cadenzas. I have writ- ten cadenzas for all the concertos that provide the opportunity. I began with the Mozart concertos, then Beethoven, then Brahms.” It will be in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto—with these cadenzas—that Dueñas will make her July debut with the both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ravinia Festival. She will be joined by Chief Conductor Marin Alsop, who will also lead the composer’s “Pastoral” Symphony No. in F major, op. , on the rst half of the program. A CADENZA —improvised or, more o en today, written out—is generally an extended solo in a concerto that allows the soloist show o their virtuosity or expressiveness in a freer way. In many cases, composers supply their own cadenzas for their works. Beethoven wrote down the cadenzas for his piano concertos two years a er he retired from performing in , and it is believed that they o er what one scholar called a “retrospective distillation” of his past extemporized performances. Indeed, this is probably the reason he didn’t supply cadenzas for his violin concerto—he didn’t play the violin, and would not have had any improvised cadenza performances of his own to draw on. But he did provide cadenzas for a version of the concerto for piano and orchestra (published as op. a) that he created subsequently at the request of Muzio Clementi. e longest and best known of these cadenzas is one that he wrote for the rst movement, which also includes the timpani. A handful of violinists, including Christian Tetzla , have in turn arranged these cadenzas for the violin. On the other hand, dozens of famous (and not-so-famous) composers and vi- olinists have written their own cadenzas for the Violin Concerto, including Josh- ua Bell, Joseph Joachim, Fritz Kreisler, RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 11 – JULY 19 , 2026 8 XENIEZASETSKAYA