Violin and Cello Sonatas III

Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 5 No. 1
Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, Op. 30 No. 1
Beethoven Horn Sonata in F major, Op. 17, arr. for cello
Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96

Tamás András violin
Mats Lidström cello
Nicola Eimer piano

In 1815, Beethoven was on the cusp of his celebrated late style. This was the year of his first sonata for cello and piano, a highly focused work whose contradictions and interruptions can seem like a portrait of the artist himself. Woven around the piece, and the composer’s own cello arrangement of his perky Horn Sonata in F, we hear two of his most fresh-faced violin sonatas. Both the A major and G major Sonatas reference vernacular music, the former in its cheerful set of variations on a folk tune and the latter in its rustic Scherzo and Finale – and another set of variations which seems sprung directly from Beethoven’s innermost soul.