Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) at the age of 12 took the stage under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn and performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D with this cadenza from the 3rd movement written by the boy violinist himself. While this concerto is probably one of my two favorite pieces of classical music of all time, this cadenza is my all time favorite of the many that have been written for this piece. It was the one Christian Ferras performed on my old LP of Herbert Von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, and it’s the piece (or just the 3rd movement) that I want played at my funeral.
Here’s the full concerto played by Benjamin Marquise Gilmore.
Kurt Nemes' Classical Music Almanac 