Cadenza is an ornamental, often improvisatory solo passage near the end of a movement, traditionally showcasing the performer's virtuosity.
The cadenza is the moment in a concerto, opera aria, or other accompanied work when the ensemble pauses on a chord and the soloist embarks on an extended unaccompanied passage. In the Baroque and Classical eras, cadenzas were improvised on the spot, allowing the performer to demonstrate technical mastery and inventive elaboration on the work's themes. Mozart wrote out cadenzas for some of his own concertos but expected others to invent theirs. Beethoven, by his Fifth Piano Concerto (1809), began composing cadenzas into the score — a sign that the work itself, not the performer's invention, had become primary. Modern performers usually play the composer's written cadenza, but pianists like András Schiff have revived the practice of improvising. The cadenza preserves a memory of when classical music was, like jazz, partly an improvised art.