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An extended solo passage, usually near the end of a concerto movement, where the soloist plays alone in a virtuosic, often improvised or quasi-improvised style.
Printed as “Cadenza” over the solo part where the orchestra stops, usually after a fermata on a cadential six-four chord; a written-out cadenza appears in small notes, often without barlines, and commonly closes on a trill. “Cadenza ad libitum” invites the soloist’s own; “Quasi cadenza” marks a free, cadenza-like passage within the music.
The cadenza is the soloist's moment of virtuosic freedom. Traditionally it is based on themes from the movement, displaying the soloist's technique and musical personality. In Classical concertos, cadenzas were improvised; from Beethoven onward, they were increasingly written out.
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”), first movement: where a cadenza would come, the score reads “Non si fa una Cadenza, ma s’attacca subito il seguente” — make no cadenza, go straight on — and Beethoven writes out the solo passage himself.
Cadenza is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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