Gramola  99106 (4 discs)

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Chamber

Beethoven: Violin Sonatas (complete)

Thomas Albertus Irnberger (violin)
Micael Korstick (piano)


The well-known young Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger and the internationally renowned Beethoven specialist Michael Korstick on the piano present all the violin sonatas and three more works by Ludwig van Beethoven. This recording was also made on video and will be released on DVDs and BluRay Discs.

Beethovens first Sonatas for violin and piano Op. 12/1-3, composed during the years 1797/1798, contain unmistakable elements of his later composition style, which challenged his contemporaries' critical taste accordingly. The violin sonatas No. 4 Op. 23 and No. 5 Op. 24 and their composition correlate, according to findings of musicologists, closely with Beethoven's own relationships. The former one seems to portray the darker side of love, its unfulfillment, whereas the later so-called 'spring sonata' - as a sort of characterization of a loving heart's feeling of spring - references the sweet, beautiful aspects of love. The three sonatas Op. 30/1-3, composed in 1802, the year when he also wrote the 'Heiligenst?dter Testament', reflect Beethoven's emotional state and are characterized by heavy mood swings. Maybe the most famous work is the 'Kreutzer' sonata No. 9 in A major Op. 47, once termed unplayable by its dedicatee, the French violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. By contrast, Beethoven's final violin sonata No. 10 in G major Op. 96 seems more heartfelt in tone and was praised by critics as the 'most poetic and musically most sensitively crafted' of his sonatas.

Thomas Albertus Irnberger and Michael Korstick furthermore present the variations 'Se vuol ballare' WoO 40 on a theme from the opera Le nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart. The Rondo in G major, WoO 41, and the Six German Dances, WoO 42, were written in 1794/96 and convey ease and almost juvenile cheerfulness - a trait also prevalent in the interpretation of Irnberger and Korstick.