Beethoven - Violin Sonata No.9 op.47 "Kreutzer

Beethoven

(17 December 1770 -- 26 March 1827) 

  Violin Sonata No.9 op.47 "Kreutzer"

Front page of an original edition of the Kreutzer Sonata

 

The Violin Sonata No. 9 of Ludwig van Beethoven, commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata,

was published as Beethoven's Opus 47. It is known for its demanding violin and piano parts,

unusual length (a typical performance lasts slightly less than 40 minutes), and emotional scope

— while the first movement is predominantly furious, the second is meditative and the third joyous and exuberant.

 

Composition

In the composer's 1803 sketchbook the work was titled "Sonata per il Pianoforte ed uno violino obligato in uno stile molto concertante come d’un concerto".^[1] The final movement of the work was originally written for another, earlier, sonata for violin and piano by Beethoven, the Op. 30, no. 1, in A major.

 

Beethoven gave no key designation to the work. Although the work is usually titled as being in A-major, the Austrian composer and music theoretician Gerhard Präsent has published articles indicating that the main key is in fact A-minor. Präsent has revealed interesting connections to the 6th violin sonata op.30/1, for which the third movement was originally composed, and he believes that the unusual opening bars for solo violin form a kind of transition from the earlier sonata (or from its structural material), supporting the belief that the acquisition of the finale of Op. 30/1 for the "Kreutzer" was a compositional intention — and not a result of lack of time, as long suspected.

 

Premiere and dedication

The sonata was originally dedicated to the violinist George Bridgetower (1778–1860) as "Sonata mulattica composta per il mulatto Brischdauer [Bridgetower], gran pazzo e compositore mulattico" (Mulatto Sonata composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, great fool mulatto composer).

 

Shortly after completion the work was premiered by Bridgetower and Beethoven on 24 May 1803

at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8:00 am. Bridgetower sight-read the sonata; he had never seen the work before, and there had been no time for any rehearsal.

 

After the premiere performance Beethoven and Bridgetower fell out: while the two were drinking, Bridgetower apparently insulted the morals of a woman whom Beethoven cherished. Enraged, Beethoven removed the dedication of the piece, dedicating it instead to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day

 

Structure

 

The piece is in three movements, and takes approximately 43 minutes to perform:

1. Adagio sostenuto – Presto (A major – A minor, sonata form, about 15 minutes in length)

   The sonata opens with a slow 18-bar introduction, of which only the first four bars of the solo violin are in the A-Major-key. The piano enters, and the harmony begins to turn darker towards the minor key, until the main body of the movement — an angry A-minor Presto— begins. Here, the piano part matches the violin's in terms of difficulty. Near the end, Beethoven brings back part of the opening Adagio, before closing the movement in an anguished coda.[제1악장은 서로를 알아보지 못하는 연인들의 싸움처럼 처절하고 비극적이다. 결국 1악장 후반부에 나타는 피아노의 강한 일격에 바이올린이 맥을 못 추게 되면서 이 비극적 드라마는 종막으로 치닫게 된다. 셰링에 의하면 이 부분이 바로 탄크레디의 칼끝이 클로린다의 아름다운 가슴을 꿰뚫는 장면이다. 이후 클로린다의 괴로운 숨결은 방황하듯 표류하는 화성으로 표현되고, 바로 그 때 클로린다의 투구를 벗긴 탄크레디는 그가 죽음으로 내몬 사람이 그가 그토록 사랑했던 클로린다임을 알고 탄식한다. 이 부분이 바로 1악장의 마지막 아다지오 부분에서 피아노가 연주하는 세 개의 코드이다. 긴 늘임표에 이어 클로린다는 숨을 거두고 탄크레디의 절규가 빠른 템포의 코다로 표현되면서 비극의 막은 내린다.]

    

2. Andante con variazioni (F major, variation form, with the third variation in F minor, about 18 minutes)

   There could hardly be a greater contrast with the second movement, a placid tune in F major followed by five distinctive variations. The first variation transliterates the theme into a lively triple meter while embellishing it with trills, while in the second the violin steals the melody and enlivens it even further. The third variation, in F minor, returns to a darker and more meditative state. The fourth recalls the first and second variations with its light, ornamental, and airy feel. The fifth and final variation, the longest, caps the movement with a slower and more dramatic feel, nevertheless returning to the carefree F major.

    [ 평안한 주제와 4개의 변주곡으로 이루어졌다. 1악장의 열정과는 전혀 다른 분위기의 명상적인 주제는 갖가지 다채로운 리듬과 화음으로 수식되고 변주곡이 진행될수록 점차 음악 삼매경으로 빠져들게 한다.]

    

3. Presto (A major, sonata form, about 10 minutes)

   The calm is broken by a crashing A major chord in the piano, ushering in the virtuosic and exuberant third movement, a 6/8 tarantella in sonata form. After moving through a series of slightly contrasting episodes, the theme returns for the last time, and the work ends jubilantly in a rush of A major.[ ‘타란텔라’ 춤곡의 약동하는 리듬의 맥박으로 숨 가쁘게 진행된다. 본래 이 악장은 베토벤의 [바이올린 소나타 제6번] 작품 30의 1번의 3악장으로 작곡된 것이었으나, 베토벤은 이 곡이 소나타 제6번에 어울리지 않게 너무 화려하다고 판단하여 [크로이처 소나타]의 3악장으로 재활용(?)하게 되었다. 지극히 화려하고 긴장감 넘치는 3악장은 1악장에 나타난 바이올린과 피아노의 격정적인 전투에 대한 화려한 결말이 되는 셈이다]

Reception

Kreutzer Sonata, painting by René François Xavier Prinet (1901), based on Tolstoy's novella, The Kreutzer Sonata

 

After its successful premiere in 1803 the work was published in 1805 as Beethoven's Op. 47, with

its re-dedication to Rudolphe Kreutzer, which gave the composition its nickname. Kreutzer never performed the work, considering it "outrageously unintelligible". He did not particularly care for any of Beethoven's music, and they only ever met once, briefly.

 

Referring to Beethoven's composition, Leo Tolstoy's novella The Kreutzer Sonata was first published in 1889. That novella was adapted in various stage and film productions, contributing to Beethoven's composition becoming known to the general public.

 

Rita Dove's 2009 Sonata Mulattica reimagined the life of Bridgetower, the sonata's original dedicatee, in poetry, thus writing about the sonata that connected the composer and the violinist who first performed it.