In Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3, the first movement seemingly can’t make up its mind between the grandiose and the playful, and leaves the reconciliation for the extraordinarily expressive and lyrical 2nd movement, which answers all questions and resolves all issues.
#Beethoven250 Day 105
Violin Sonata No. 3 in E♭ Major (Opus 12, No. 3), 1797–98
Japanese violinist Tatsuki Narita (@narita_tatsuki) is accompanied by pianist Yun-Yang Lee.
In 1799 a critic wrote of the Opus 12 Violin Sonatas: “after having looked through these strange sonatas, overladen with difficulties, that after diligent and strenuous labor he felt like a man who had hoped to make a promenade with a genial friend through a tempting forest and found himself barred every minute by inimical barriers, returning at last exhausted and without having had any pleasure. It is undeniable that Herr Beethoven goes his own gait; but what a bizarre and singular gait it is! Learned, learned and always learned — and nothing natural, no song. Yes, to be accurate, there is only a mass of learning here, without good method; obstinacy, but for which we feel little interest; a striving for strange modulations, an objection to customary associations, a heaping up of difficulties on difficulties till one loses all patience and enjoyment.” (Thayer/Forbes, pp. 277–8)