Is there a cadenza in a concerto grosso?
Sometimes concerti grossi (that’s the plural form of the term) have tiny little cadenzas, often at the end of movements or between movements. These are seldom written down, but would have been improvised by the musicians during the performance. They are often just decorated and ornamented, prolonged cadences. Improvisation like this was not uncommon in the Baroque and Classical periods and it causes the difficulty for modern performers of trying to guess what sort of thing might have actually been played. Very occasionally, a whole movement would be improvised. A famous example of this is the ‘missing’ middle movement of JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 3 (which is a concerto grosso in form). The printed music only shows the final cadence for this movement; the remainder of it would have been an improvisation by the first violin and continuo players. Having said all of this, concerti grossi do not contain long, virtuosic cadenzas of the sort found in Classical and Romantic concertos.
