Cellist Steven Isserlis writes:
The early sonatas are creations of the fiery young virtuoso, revolutionizing the concert platform. They rattle the cage of classicism, radically altering the world of chamber music — not just the cello sonata — in the process.
The second of Beethoven’s Opus 5 cello sonatas is structured similarly to the first with two movements: The first movement is in sonata form, but with a long Adagio introduction and concluding with a coda. The second movement is an Allegro rondo.
In contrast to the first cello sonata, the second has a longer, more brooding and melancholy, Adagio introduction punctuated by haunting enigmatic silences, and the Allegro section is more turbulent. But the 2nd movement Rondo is light and playful, and stays mostly in major keys.
#Beethoven250 Day 76
Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor (Opus 5, No. 2), 1796
Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses and Portuguese-Swiss pianist Maria João Pires performing in Paris.
Before Beethoven left Berlin, King Friedrich Wilhelm II presented him with a gold snuff box stuffed with Louis d’ors. Beethoven later bragged that it was not an ordinary snuff box, but one that might have been given to an ambassador.