30th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival / Ishizaka / Schuch - NOSPR

Nowadays, the idea of the cello as a concert instrument raises no eyebrows at all. In Beethoven’s time, however, matters were rather different: the instrument functioned primarily as basso continuo – it provided accompaniment and remained largely in the background. In his sonatas for cello and piano, Ludwig van Beethoven chose to grant both instruments equal status. For the first time, the cello assumed a vital role in shaping the dramatic course of the cycle. The five sonatas are now counted among the most treasured works in the chamber repertoire for the cello. It is also important to note that these works, composed between 1796 and 1815, represent all three traditionally recognised periods of Beethoven’s creative life: early, middle, and late.

The sonatas of Op. 5 were written when Beethoven was only twenty-six. By contrast, the Sonata in A major, Op. 69 belongs to the period of the composer’s full artistic maturity, having been completed at the same time as the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. The score bears the inscription Inter lacrimas et luctum (Amidst tears and sorrow), although this mood does not unequivocally dominate the work. The final two cello sonatas already mark the beginning of Beethoven’s late style, characterised by greater emotional depth and formal complexity. Here, there is far more freedom: the first of the Op. 102 sonatas consists of only two movements and was described by the composer himself as Freie Sonate (Free Sonata). Likewise, the second sonata of Op. 102 introduces bolder solutions and foreshadows the musical language that would emerge a decade later in the Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue, or Grand Fugue), Op. 133.

Julia Broniowska / NOSPR

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes

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