Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, has gone down in history as the Kreutzer Sonata (Kreutzer-Sonate). The composer dedicated it to the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer since he had a high opinion of Kreutzer’s performing and human qualities. Nevertheless, the violinist valued Beethoven’s composition at a low rate and never performed it in his life. The sonata was premiered in 1803 in an exotic manner: Beethoven played the piano, and the violin part was performed by the then known mulatto virtuoso, George Bridgetower, whose father claimed to be an Abyssinian prince. The composition was titled “Sonata in a highly concertante style” though it might truly be called “Sonata in a symphonic style”. The grandiose first movement seems to be a symphonic movement, turning performers’ duet into an exciting “fight”, which requires every resource from the both instruments. The second movement Andante in variation form is a contest of another kind; the violin and the piano contend for precedence in subtlety and mastery of their patterns, weaving a delicate music tissue with their light voltaic motions. The third movement is an exuberant tarantella in which the gleeful mood and the elemental strife of dance and humor prevail.
The popularity of the Kreutzer Sonata was boosted by Leo Tolstoy’s novella of the same name. In his novella, the writer termed Andante “beautiful but not very new, with vulgar variations, and the feeble finale.” However, he wrote about the first movement as follows: “These pieces should be played under certain circumstances, only in cases where it is necessary to take certain significant actions corresponding to the music”. Later Leo Tolstoy changed his uncomplimentary opinion of the second and third movements. According to the pianist Goldenweiser’s Talks with Tolstoy, the writer felt perplexed when he heard the sonata some years after the publication of the novella. It seemed that he could scarcely believe what he had once attributed to the music.
Nadezhda Kulygina
Johannes Brahms’ Cello and Piano Sonata No 2 was written at the request of cellist Robert Hausmann. The composer worked on his new opus in the summer of 1886 in the small Swiss town of Thun. In the autumn he “reaped the harvest” – in Vienna he performed what he had written over the course of the summer. On 24 November the sonata was performed (using the actual manuscript) at the Kleine Saal of Vienna’s Musikverein. The cello part was performed by Hausmann and the piano by the composer.
The first movement of the sonata amazes us with its wise economy, the secret of which Brahms had discovered later in life. It is based on a motif of two sounds from which, as if from a seed, both themes – the principal and the secondary – sprout forth. The second movement is possibly the highly enigmatic Adagio affettuoso that Brahms had dropped from his First Cello Sonata twenty years earlier and now revived from inexistence. At the start of the final Allegro molto Brahms unexpectedly moves his attention to the pianist, giving the piano an almost orchestral structure. The initial theme of the finale is closely linked to the principal theme of the last movement of Brahms’ First Symphony, only here the music is more modest in terms of scale and is not devoid of humorous streaks.
Anna Bulycheva
