Nathan Milstein, Beethoven cadenza on 1716 Stradivarius “ex-Milstein“

One of my heroes (I’m the “other Nathan“!) wrote cadenzas for most of the major concertos, including this one for the first movement of the Beethoven. When I was able to play his instrument for a performance of the concerto, I also played this cadenza in his honor. Although he played many different versions in performance, including some you can find here on YouTube, this is the version published in the Schirmer edition of his cadenza collection. This extraordinary instrument was set up with Pirastro Passione strings for the G-D-A strings, and a steel E. The Passione is a modern gut string (with metal winding, of course!) that allows us to come close to the setup Milstein used.