Beethoven 250 - Violin Sonatas n 4 - Arendal cultural center

Fourth concert in this long journey towards 16/17 December 2020, contains two of the most played violin sonatas by Beethoven, as well as Edvard Grieg's first violin sonata. 

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There are connections that make it natural to invite Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Edvard Grieg to the celebration of the great master from Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th anniversary.

Both Brahms and Beethoven, despite the fact that they both came from Germany, lived in Vienna, and they were strongly influenced by the city. Franz Schubert who was from Austria and what is today a district of Vienna was very interested in Beethoven and admired his artistry. Franz Schubert was considered Beethoven's contemporary - born 27 years after Beethoven, but died aged only 31 the year after Beethoven had passed away.

Brahms was seen as the composer from Germany who followed in Beethoven's footsteps stylistically and expressively. 

Brahms also had a strong relationship with Leipzig, where Robert and Clara Schumann lived their lives. It was also in Leipzig that Edvard Grieg received his training as a composer and it is known that Grieg and Brahms met on more than one occasion. 

Spring is coming!

This program is in the  sign of spring, the 22-year-old Edvard Grieg wrote his first sonata for  piano and violin in 1865 while he was visiting Denmark. The Norwegian composer  Gerhard Schjelderup referred to the sonata as "a work written by a youth  who has only seen the bright sides of life" - this despite the fact that it takes _cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_us through a number of different layers of expression.

The concert  also presents two of Beethoven's most played sonatas. Sonata number 5 op 24 saw  the light of day in 1801 and is nicknamed the spring sonata, a nickname that  was given to the sonata after the composer's death. Perhaps the associations with   trickling water and chirping birds is why someone later found it   appropriate to give the sonata such an epithet. After the break, we meet the  magnificent sonata number 7 in C minor, op 30 n2. This is a sonata in  larger format and with a much darker and conflicted undertone. The sense of struggle, which is so clearly expressed in many of his works from this period of his life, is striking. Sonata number 9, Kreutzer is the  only of the violin sonatas that goes further in this.

The concert takes us, to use the metaphor of spring in nature, on a journey from trickling streams to thundering waterfalls.

This concert has the following program:

Edvard Grieg: 

Sonata n1 in F major op 8

Allegro con brio

Allegretto quasi andantino

Allegro molto vivace

Ludwig van Beethoven:

Sonata n5  in F major op 24

Allegro

Adagio molto espressivo

Scherzo: Allegro molto

Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Break

Ludwig van Beethoven 

Sonata n7  in C minor op 30 n2

Allegro con brio

Adagio cantabile

Scherzo: Allegro

Finale: Allegro; Presto 

Yejin Gil, piano

Jan Bjøranger, violin