The opportunity to view original manuscripts is a unique privilege and one Music Restored: The Ziering-Conlon Center for Exiled and Suppressed Composers Program Director Adam Millstein couldn’t pass up. While traveling and performing in Europe in 2022, Millstein took a detour to Prague, Czechia, to explore the Erwin Schulhoff archives. However, he didn’t expect to discover manuscripts of cadenzas Schulhoff wrote for Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1–4 in 1923 that rarely have been heard to date. 

“I was overcome with emotion to feel the 100-year-old manuscripts in my hands that survived the war,” he recalled. “I was especially moved by a dedication made by the composer in German to his ‘little son Peter,’ the same son who would later bury his father outside of a Bavarian concentration camp where they were both interned.” 

Music Restored is honored to not only have accessed these original works, but also to perform and record them. Pianist Dominic Cheli joined the Music Restored Ensemble under the baton of Maestro James Conlon, artistic director for Music Restored, to record the complete Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 featuring Schulhoff’s cadenzas for the first and third movements.  

“I was moved to tears during the recording session,” said Millstein. “Maestro Conlon led the orchestra with a deep artistic vision of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto writing, and Dominic Cheli blended his love of Beethoven and Schulhoff when recording these stunning cadenzas. I am thrilled the world at large will be able to hear this work.” 

The new audio and video recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Schulhoff cadenzas is available now on our Videos page.