Beethoven Violin Sonatas

Rachel Podger violin
Christopher Glynn piano

Violin Sonata No 1 in D Major, Op 12
Violin Sonata No 5 in F major, Op 24 “Spring”
— Interval —
Violin Sonata No 7 in C minor, Op 30

Beethoven learned to play the violin as a boy and mastered the piano as a man. His profound understanding of both instruments, and ability to combine them with astonishing invention and originality, is heard in ten sonatas. Using 19th century instruments that reflect Beethoven’s ideal, Rachel Podger and Christopher Glynn explore a sonata cycle that, more than any other, opens up new worlds of expression for their instruments. This concert comes as part of a project to record the entire cycle as we head into 2020, the year the world celebrate’s Beethoven’s 250th birthday.

Here we hear the high-spirited first sonata, the famously lyrical fifth sonata nicknamed ‘Spring’ and the impassioned seventh sonata. Violin and piano are engaged in an endlessly fascinating and varied dialogue.

The piano you will hear being played at this concert is a Bösendorfer from 1872, a piano built in the same tradition (with single-escapement action) as the Viennese fortepianos that Beethoven knew, but with the extended compass and greater dynamic range he longed for.

Rachel Podger photo credit: Theresa Pewal