In April 1802, Beethoven moved to the country: the village of Heiligenstadt (which was not yet part of Vienna) and stayed until October. This was a period of great productivity, but also at times almost suicidal despondency triggered by his deteriorating hearing.
During the six months that Beethoven spent in Heiligenstadt in 1802, he finished three Violin Sonatas (Opus 30) that he had begun sketching prior to his arrival, plus three Piano Sonatas (Opus 31) and two sets of piano variations.
Of the three Violin Sonatas in Beethoven’s Opus 30, the 1st and 3rd are in major keys and the 2nd is in a minor key. This major-minor-major progression of the three works thus has an emotional arc that parallels the typical fast-slow-fast structure of a three-movement sonata.
Beethoven dedicated the Opus 30 Violin Sonatas to the Tsar Alexander I, recently ascended to the throne and only in his mid-20s. Like his grandmother Catherine the Great, Alexander purported to favor Enlightenment reforms, but in practice fell short.
For those people who like to divide Beethoven’s career into “early,” “middle,” and “late” periods, the extended summer that Beethoven spent in Heiligenstadt might mark a convenient transition point between the early and middle periods (more or less).
#Beethoven250 Day 151
Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Major (Opus 30, No. 1), 1802
A wonderful performance by Kentucky-born violinist Tessa Lark and Chinese-American pianist Yundu Wang at the New England Conservatory.
The opening movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 suggests some of the gentle playfulness and pleasant surprises of the Spring Sonata (Day 135), and although the second movement is a simple rondo, it soon reveals itself as an intimate and ethereal cantilena.
About the Violin Sonata No. 6, Austrian-British violinist Max Rostal wrote: “The second movement, the Adagio molto expressivo, belongs for me among the most beautiful and moving things that have ever been expressed in music. … It is a deeply serious and moving confession, the end of which equals the late Beethoven in its rapture.” (“Beethoven: the Sonatas for Piano and Violin,” pp. 90, 94)
Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi wrote that the slow movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 “has such a feeling of tenderness and sorrow it reminds me, if I am allowed the comparison, of Michelangelo’s Pietà, and his unfinished marvel, the Descent of the Cross. I do not want to suggest that this adagio could be called religious music, I am only thinking in both cases of the expression of infinite tenderness and sorrow, whether put into sound or carved in stone.”
The final movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 is a rollicking theme and variations. The 4th variation is particularly distinctive, with aggressive stabbing chords of the violin answered by the piano attempting to defuse the conflict.