Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Opp. 23 And 96 / 12 Variations

Description

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Violin Sonata No.4 in A Minor, Op. 23 Violin Sonata No.10 in G Major, Op. 96 Variations on 'Se vuol ballare' from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, WoO 40In 1792 Beethoven left his native city of Bonn to seek his fortune inthe imperial capital, Vienna. Five years earlier his patron, the Archbishop ofCologne, a scion of the imperial family, had sent him to Vienna, where he hadhoped to have lessons with Mozart. His plans were frustrated by the illness andsubsequent death of his mother, which made it necessary to return to Bonn andbefore long to take charge of the welfare of his younger brothers. Beethoven'sfather, overshadowed by the eminence of his own father. Kapellmeister to aformer Archbishop, had proved inadequate both as a musician and in the family,of which his son now took control.As a boy Beethoven had been trained to continue family tradition as amusician and had followed his inadequate father and relatively distinguishedgrandfather as a member of the archiepiscopal musical establishment. In 1792 hearrived in Vienna with introductions to various members of the nobility andwith the offer of lessons with Haydn, from whom he later claimed to havelearned nothing. There were further lessons from the Court Composer, AntonioSalieri, and from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, with violin lessons fromSchuppanzigh and from the former Esterhazy violinist Wenzel Krumpholtz. Hisinitial career as a keyboard virtuoso was one of some brilliance and he was toestablish himself, in the course of time, as a figure of remarkable genius andoriginality, as a man no respecter of persons, his growing eccentricity all thegreater for his increasing deafness. This last disability made publicperformance, whether as a keyboard-player or in the direction of his own music,increasingly difficult, and must have served to encourage the development ofone particular facet of his music, stigmatised by hostile contemporary criticsas "learned", the use of counterpoint. He died in Vienna in 1827.The works that Beethoven wrote for violin and keyboard cover a periodfrom about 1792 up to 1819, the period of the Hammerklavier Sonata, startingwith a set of variations on an operatic air from Mozart and ending with a setof variations on national themes for flute or violin. The most significant partof this repertoire must be the ten sonatas which, although uneven in quality,represent a major contribution to the literature of the genre. Here Beethovenshows his ability to provide music that demands a partnership between the twoplayers, no more piano sonatas with optional violin accompaniment, whatever thetitle-page of the earlier works may have suggested. As in the maturer work ofMozart, the violin is treated as an essential participant, a division of labourthat has since been generally established. 1t is worth noticing that eight ofthe ten sonatas were written between 1797 and 1802.The Sonata in A minor, Opus 23,was written in 1801 and published, together with th