My discovery of this extraordinarily recreative take on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto coincided with a period when the notion of ‘presentism’ was first introduced to me, an idea that catapults present-day perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. There are some who would rather avoid presentism in their work because they consider it a form of cultural bias, believing that it creates a distorted understanding of their subject matter. I mention this because Jörg Widmann’s cadenzas, where the solo fiddle joins forces with the timpani and a double bass for all manner of inventive acrobatics, do just that. ‘I wanted to create a completely new tonal cosmos in which Beethoven’s themes could appear in a very different light’, writes Widmann, which is exactly what he does.

The soloist here is Veronika Eberle, who Simon Rattle presented to a packed Salzburg Festspielhaus playing this very work in 2006, when she was just 16. Her sound is pure gossamer, with lightning trills that tend to slowly accelerate, and a dynamic radius that takes us from a barely audible pianissimo to assertive attack. She’s a resourceful player whose approach to the piece seems to fit the interpretative principles that Rattle himself favours, careering birdlike through the ether, purity and flexibility both much in evidence. What emerges is a clean, agile rendition, with an unforced use of vibrato, but as to likely takers there can be little doubt that Widmann’s contributions will sort the yea-sayers from the nay-sayers.

It’s fascinating how in his cadenzas Widmann references different movements out of context. Again, here I quote him: ‘For example, a fragment from the third movement is integral to the cadenza of the first movement, while conversely, the large thematic blocks from Beethoven’s first movement radiate into the cadenzas of the second and third movements.’ The first movement’s cadenza arrives at 19'57" to quiet off-key pizzicatos, shadowy sul ponticellos, jarring, abrasive chords that call on timpani (the five-note timp motif is all-pervasive) and a hint of the finale before the double bass arrives and with it, as if the preceding wasn’t enough, hints of jazz. The way Widmann winds down from his dazzling box of tricks to the warmly embellished purity of the original at 24'37" is nothing short of magical.

At 9'28" in the Larghetto the violin ascends towards the stratosphere on a sequence of quietening trills before harmonics and pizzicatos take over, then Widmann ingeniously combines elements of the Larghetto and finale, elaborates further and has dripping pizzicatos accelerate towards terra firma and the finale. Once into the third movement, at 6'53" Widmann recalls the likes of Nováček’s Perpetuum mobile, morris dancing (or something similar) and a fiddle sparring with the growling bass. Amazing juxtapositions.

Beyond travelling ‘back to the future’ with Beethoven-Widmann we arrive at Beethoven’s earliest attempt at a violin concerto, which, as annotator Wendy Thompson tells us, dates from the last two years the composer spent in Bonn, between 1790 and 1792, when he was around 21 years old. Only a section of an opening movement (Allegro con brio) from this concerto survives; it came to light in 1870. Eberle and Rattle pass on the option of a speculative completion and instead offer us the 8'20" fragment that Beethoven left us, about a third of which is the opening tutti. Think in terms of Weber or Spohr and you’ll know roughly what to expect.

As to a final reckoning, comparisons are quite frankly irrelevant. This, to the best of my knowledge, is the only available version of Op 61 where the principal reason for listening or purchasing lies not with the performance (which viewed overall is excellent) but with the cadenzas. They amount to a transformative experience and for that reason alone need to be heard. The excellent recording, made in the Jerwood Hall at LSO St Luke’s during March last year, was produced by Andrew Cornall with recording engineer Neil Hutchinson, while Jonathan Stokes was responsible for the editing, mixing and mastering.