[Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)] – Emma von Staudach (1834-1862)
Manuscript of Staudach's cadenza for Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.3 in C minor, op.37, [c.1852]
A Beethoven cadenza by a young female virtuoso.

Title ('Fermate zu Beethovens Cmol Concert / Em[m]a Staudach') and 13 pages, 330 x 255mm, the last ten bars cancelled in ink. Contemporary blue paper wrappers.

Provenance:
(1) Acquired from Scientific Library Service (S. Orlinck), March 1968.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5417.

The young pianist Emma von Staudach performed a number of concerts in Vienna from December 1850 to summer 1852, to favourable reviews, before in autumn 1852 embarking on a European tour. This included a performance of the Beethoven concerto at a Gewandhaus concert in Leipzig on 25 November 1852 which was praised by the Illustrirte Zeitung for its 'commendable energy [...] by no means lacking delicacy and suppleness'. She then performed in Weimar before Liszt, who wrote her letters of introduction to Pierre Erard in Paris and Joseph Joachim in Berlin. During a second European tour in 1856 she is known to have performed the op.37 concerto in a New Philharmonic Society concert at the Hanover Square Rooms on 3 June. Her musical career ended with her marriage in 1859, and she died only three years later, of lung disease.