About
In 1803, Ludwig van Beethoven composed the ninth, and final, of his piano and violin sonatas. Originally dedicated to Georg Bridgetower, who performed the work alongside the composer at the piano, the two parted ways two years later. Beethoven, known for his volatile personality, changed the dedication, placing the name of the then-celebrated violinist, Rodolph Kreutzer, on the score. While Kreutzer never performed or appreciated the sonata, it became known as the Kreutzer Sonata, giving rise to a remarkable chain of inspiration. Eighty-five years later, Leo Tolstoy listened to the Beethoven sonata. The writer, deeply moved by the music, wrote a novella that combined sociological reflections on marriage and jealousy, an intimate portrait of a murderous husband, and a fascinating meditation on the power of sound. This very Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy inspired Leoš Janáček to compose his own sonata of the same name in 1923. The four-part, approximately twenty-minute work contains a powerful emotional charge, and Janáček's musical thought seems almost perfectly to transcribe Tolstoy's concepts into the language of music. The program, which presents all three Kreutzer sonatas, is a combination of a concert and a theatrical performance, in which the audience-spectators become witnesses and participants in the emotions conveyed by this masterpiece of art:
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