The success of the Three Sonatas, Op. 12 convinced Beethoven that the genre was worth exploring further: within three years, he completed two other sonatas for piano and violin – Opp. 23 and 24. Originally intended to be published under the same opus number (23), a printing mishap forced the publisher to separate the two works.
Nicknamed posthumously as “Frühlingssonate” (Spring Sonata), the work is the first in the genre to be in four movements. It was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries, a patron who was also the dedicatee of other works that Beethoven published around the same time. It is perhaps Beethoven’s most popular violin sonata.
By 1803, four more sonatas for piano and violin appeared in print – Opp. 30 and 47. Beethoven seemed to have found a congenial genre, especially in the highly virtuosic “Kreutzer” Sonata, Op. 47. However, it took him nine years to return to the genre. This time, he did so with a highly unconventional work – the Sonata in G Major, Op. 96. The French violinist Pierre Rode gave its premiere, alongside Archduke Rudolph at the piano. Beethoven wrote the final movement specifically with Rode in mind: the celebrated violinist apparently shunned virtuosic outbursts, which compelled the composer to give up the idea of a lively and technically challenging rondo, penning a set of variations on a jovial theme instead – an unusual choice for a closing movement.
Violinist Paolo Ghidoni and pianist Marco Grisanti team up in this exciting album, the third of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violin.
The recording was made by the producer Alessandro Simonetto with two pair of historical microphones Brüel & Kjæer, including 130 volts.