Mary Jane Freeman

A Presidents Day tribute to G. Washington and A. Lincoln both of whom loved music: Beethoven’s Kreutzer sonata for violin and piano played by a master.

The Kreutzer Sonata, Beethoven’s ninth for violin and piano, is sometimes referred to as “the other Ninth”. The story of its dedication is famous: The half-African violinist George Bridgetower came to Vienna, where he and Beethoven immediately hit it off. Beethoven composed this sonata for him and dedicated it accordingly. Unfortunately, during the celebration of its successful premiere, Bridgetower impugned the morals of a woman whom Beethoven admired, leading Beethoven to rip up the title page and dedicate the sonata instead to the violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer, who actually disliked the work and never performed it!
        At the age of 82, the great violinist Nathan Milstein performed the Kreutzer sonata with pianist Georges Pludermacher, in what was to become his last public performance. A short bio of Milstein precedes the sonata.[Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Today, Beethoven’s second piece of Opus 49.

We are eternally grateful to Beethoven’s brother Kaspar, who arranged for the publication, against the composer’s wishes, of the two “Leichte Sonaten” Opus 49. There is hardly a piano student who has not learned from study of these graceful pieces. 
We present here the Opus 49 number 2, Beethoven’s 20th piano sonata, complete with score (performer sadly unidentified). [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Beethoven’s “Leichte Sonaten” composed in 1795-76 but not released publicly until 1805 are often studied by students.

The Opus 49 “Leichte Sonaten” (light sonatas) are only known today because Kaspar van Beethoven, one of the composer’s brothers, decided on his own to present them for publication in 1805, fully ten years after they had been composed. They are both two-movement works of great charm, popular among students and professionals alike.

Here Wilhelm Kempff performs Beethoven’s Sonata #19, Opus 49 no. 1.

Beethoven’s piano sonata Op. # 3 in E-flat major, “The Hunt,” was written in 1802.

The third of the Opus 31 sonatas is affectionately known as “The Hunt”, a nickname that describes only the last movement – fast, rollicking, and full of “horn calls”. This is one of Beethoven’s most good-natured works, displaying grace, charm, and wit throughout.

British pianist George Harliono recorded this sonata in the “Snape Maltings” concert hall – a repurposed building originally used for brewing beer and now famous for its superb acoustics. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

Beethoven and the C-minor dialogue.

We return to Beethoven with two of his best-known sonatas in C-minor: the Pathétique and the Opus 111. Listen for the development of the theme that Bach put forward in his Musical Offering!

Sonata Pathétique (1st movement) played by Dubravka Tomsic:

Opus 111 (1st movement) played by Alfred Brendel:

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach: A Musical Dialogue.

We continue the investigation of the C-minor dialogue with Bach’s Ricercar à 6 and Mozart’s sonata K.457. When the elderly J.S. Bach visited his son who was court musician for Frederick II, the king presented the elder Bach with a difficult theme, and challenged him to improvise a three-part and then a six-part fugue. Bach created the 3-part fugue on the spot, but declined the 6-part pending further study. Two months later, Bach sent the king the two-volume “Musical Offering” in which the theme is subjected to every possible permutation in the form of ten  different canons, two ricercars, and a trio sonata! 
After studying the Musical Offering, Mozart composed his C-minor sonata and later the Fantasy (which we heard yesterday) in which he demonstrated the principles used in composing the sonata. 
In the next days, we’ll see how this theme was developed by Beethoven and Schubert. [Notes by Margaret Scialdone.]

We hear the Ricercar a 6 played by Daniel Martyn Lewis.

The Mozart sonata is performed here by Micah McLaurin.