Beethoven - chamber concert: sonatas for violin and piano

Beethoven: Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Op. 30 No. 1-3 Beethoven composed 10 sonatas for violin and piano. The first 9 arose over a relatively short period around the year 1800, while the last followed 10 years later. The three sonatas, Nos. 6-8, which he composed and published together as his Op. 30, are full-blooded sonatas for the two instruments, although the three works are of widely different character. Like Op. 31, which consists of three sonatas for piano, the violin sonatas follow a progression with a light and bright sonata in a major key, a highly dramatic virtuoso sonata in a minor key, and finally a virtuoso, outgoing sonata in a major key. The three sonatas were dedicated to Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, who was an excellent violinist. The two met at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, which shaped the future of Europe after Napoleon. I play the three works with the violinist Christian Ellegaard; we are thus approaching – after four years – the two last great sonatas, one of which is the famous and feared "Kreutzer Sonata", for the line-up. We will perform them in 2027, which marks the 200th anniversary of the composer's death. By then the great trio nicknamed the Archduke is also in store.

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