Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Violin Sonata No.4 in A Minor, Op. 23
Violin Sonata No.10 in G Major, Op. 96
Variations on 'Se vuol ballare'
from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, WoO 40
In 1792 Beethoven left his native city of Bonn to seek his fortune in
the imperial capital, Vienna. Five years earlier his patron, the Archbishop of
Cologne, a scion of the imperial family, had sent him to Vienna, where he had
hoped to have lessons with Mozart. His plans were frustrated by the illness and
subsequent death of his mother, which made it necessary to return to Bonn and
before long to take charge of the welfare of his younger brothers. Beethoven's
father, overshadowed by the eminence of his own father. Kapellmeister to a
former Archbishop, had proved inadequate both as a musician and in the family,
of which his son now took control.
As a boy Beethoven had been trained to continue family tradition as a
musician and had followed his inadequate father and relatively distinguished
grandfather as a member of the archiepiscopal musical establishment. In 1792 he
arrived in Vienna with introductions to various members of the nobility and
with the offer of lessons with Haydn, from whom he later claimed to have
learned nothing. There were further lessons from the Court Composer, Antonio
Salieri, and from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, with violin lessons from
Schuppanzigh and from the former Esterhazy violinist Wenzel Krumpholtz. His
initial career as a keyboard virtuoso was one of some brilliance and he was to
establish himself, in the course of time, as a figure of remarkable genius and
originality, as a man no respecter of persons, his growing eccentricity all the
greater for his increasing deafness. This last disability made public
performance, whether as a keyboard-player or in the direction of his own music,
increasingly difficult, and must have served to encourage the development of
one particular facet of his music, stigmatised by hostile contemporary critics
as "learned", the use of counterpoint. He died in Vienna in 1827.
The works that Beethoven wrote for violin and keyboard cover a period
from about 1792 up to 1819, the period of the Hammerklavier Sonata, starting
with a set of variations on an operatic air from Mozart and ending with a set
of variations on national themes for flute or violin. The most significant part
of this repertoire must be the ten sonatas which, although uneven in quality,
represent a major contribution to the literature of the genre. Here Beethoven
shows his ability to provide music that demands a partnership between the two
players, no more piano sonatas with optional violin accompaniment, whatever the
title-page of the earlier works may have suggested. As in the maturer work of
Mozart, the violin is treated as an essential participant, a division of labour
that has since been generally established. 1t is worth noticing that eight of
the ten sonatas were written between 1797 and 1802.
The Sonata in A minor, Opus 23,
was written in 1801 and published, together with the Sonata Opus 24, in the same year, with a dedication to the
banker Count Moritz von Fries, a strong supporter of Beethoven, whom he
continued to assist financially until his own bankruptcy in 1825. The first
movement is one of particular brilliance, with a lilting second subject that
finds a place for subtle contrapuntal pointing and a central development
derived largely from the opening figure of the movement. Counterpoint has a
more important role in the A major Andante scherzoso with its quirky opening
section and stricter fugal imitation in w hat follows. The final Allegro molto
allows the piano to state the principal subject, followed by the violin,
repeated after the brief Adagio that closes the first intervening episode. A
brief scherzo-like passage in A major and the return once more of the principal
theme lead to a slow F major theme treated contrapuntally and in other ways.
These elements re-appear in the concluding section of the sonata.
Beethoven wrote his Sonata in G
major, Opus 96, in 1812 for his royal pupil Archduke Rudolph and the
visiting French violinist Pierre Rode in a private performance at the end of
December. The violin part was designed specifically for Rode, who, it seemed,
disliked the customary Viennese finale with its necessary panache. The first movement
opens hesitatingly, the opening figure repeated before the first subject is
fully stated. The second subject ascends brightly, before a second half of
descending triplets. After the central development the first subject returns
even more hesitatingly to introduce the final recapitulation. A moving E flat
major Adagio is succeeded by a capricious G minor Scherzo, framing an E flat
major Trio that climbs to the heights, and ends in a brief G major coda. The
last movement concession to Rode is marked Poco allegretto, its principal
subject announced first by the piano, followed by the violin. This is on the
whole a gentle movement, varied by the inclusion of an Adagio and written
cadenzas for the two instruments leading to a false return of the main theme,
the last true appearance of which is preceded by an interesting passage of
contrapuntal imitation.
Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro
(The Marriage of Figaro) was first staged in 1786 and appeared in various
published arrangements in the following years. There were revivals in Vienna in
1789 and 1790, but no performance in Vienna after Beethoven's arrival there
until 1798. The opera, however, remained well known, its melodies available in
a variety of versions. Beethoven seems to have completed his variations on
Figaro's cynical 'Se vuol ballare, Signor Contino' (If you would dance, Sir
Count) in 1793, although the work may have existed in some form or other before
he moved to Vienna. From there he sent a copy to his friend Eleonore von
Breuning, explaining how he has committed it to paper to prevent imitation by
his rivals in Vienna and how the final trills in the coda present no
insuperable difficulties, if other notes are left to the violin.
The theme itself is played pizzicato by the violin, followed by a first
variation marked sempre dolce in which the piano takes the melody. The second
variation starts with a semiquaver piano accompaniment with a staccato violin
accompaniment to a piano variation. The running notes of the third version,
marked sempre piano e legato, leads to a fourth opened by the descending scales
of the piano, echoed by the violin. In the fifth a violin trill and descending
piano scales are followed by a marked rhythmic figure from both instruments.
The theme is then offered in F minor, the key also of the seventh variation,
with the major key restored in the eighth, with its triplet accompaniment
figuration. The ninth is for piano alone, leaving the violin to start the
following melodic variation. The contrasts of dynamics and rhythm in the
penultimate variation lead to a concluding twelfth version, with an
accompanying Alberti bass and a violin statement of the theme that starts in
double stopping. The coda, with its trill to challenge the technique of
Eleonore von Breuning, has other surprises, and a brief element of contrapuntal
imitation as it draws to a close.
Takako Nishizaki
Takako Nishizaki is one of Japan's finest violinists. After studying
with her father, Shinji Nishizaki, she became the first student of Shinichi
Suzuki, the creator of the famous Suzuki Method of violin teaching for
children. Subsequently she went to Japan's famous Toho School of Music, and to
the Juilliard School in the United States, where she studied with Joseph Fuchs.
Takako Nishizaki is one of the most frequently recorded violinists in
the world today. She has recorded ten volumes of her complete Fritz Kreisler
Edition, many contemporary Chinese violin concertos, among them the Concerto by
Du Mingxin, dedicated to her, and a growing number of rare, previously
unrecorded violin concertos, among them concertos by Spohr, Bériot, Cui,
Respighi, Rubinstein and Joachim. For Naxos she has recorded Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Mozart's Violin Concertos, Sonatas by Mozart and
Beethoven and the Bach, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bruch and Brahms
Concertos.
Jeno Jandó
The Hungarian pianist Jeno Jandó has won a number of piano competitions
in Hungary and abroad, including first prize in the 1973 Hungarian Piano
Concours and a first prize in the chamber music category at the Sydney
International Piano Competition in 1977. He has recorded for Naxos all the
piano concertos and sonatas of Mozart. Other recordings for the Naxos label
include the concertos of Grieg and Schumann as well as Rachmaninov's Second Concerto and Paganini Rhapsody and Beethoven's complete
piano sonatas.