Violin Sonata in G major Op.96 (1812)

The Violin Sonata in G, Op.96, was dedicated to Beethoven’s greatest patron, the Archduke Rudolph, and was first performed in 1812 by the French virtuoso Pierre Rode and the Archduke himself. Unfortunately, as Beethoven had discovered when the violinist arrived in Vienna, his technique was not what it was. “I had to write with more consideration in view of Rode’s playing,” he wrote to Archduke Rudolph. “We like to have more tumultuous passages in our finales, but they do not suit R.”

A tumultuous finale would surely have been out of place in a work as serene as Op.96. The essentially peaceful first movement begins unpretentiously with a beautifully simple main theme consisting only of a trill and three other notes. There is a rather more tense, though still happy, tune in the dominant, with a pressing rhythm and rising melodic inflection. But Beethoven is interested not so much in developing his second subject as in exploring an interesting harmonic discovery in the closing theme of the exposition. When the second subject does re-appear it is to    indicate that what one might have assumed was a development of the trill theme was actually the start of the recapitulation.

The piano begins the slow movement with a chorale-like melody which the violin takes up only after it has improvised a sustained and decorative song of its own. This prompts the piano into returning the compliment before a series of delicate little runs on the two instruments leads out of the Adagio and directly into the next movement – a pastoral Scherzo with muffled stamping of rustic feet in the outer sections and a quick Ländler in the middle.

Rode’s specially written finale is an informal set of variations on what might well have been a popular Viennese song. Certainly, it is a delightful tune which inspires a lovely Adagio centrepiece, with rapid chromatic runs on the piano in the place of violinistic tumult. Even then, according to an observer of the first performance, “the piano part was played far better, more in accordance with the spirit of the piece, and with more feeling than that of the violin.” This was presumably more a matter of the Archduke’s familiarity with the idiom than any inability on Rode’s part to survive the quick last section of the finale – the running semiquaver version of the original theme, the quiet fugue, and the witty coda.

The Violin Sonata in G, Op.96, was dedicated to Beethoven’s greatest patron, the Archduke Rudolph, and first performed in 1812 by the French virtuoso Pierre Rode and the Archduke himself. Unfortunately, as Beethoven had discovered when the violinist arrived in Vienna, his technique was not what it was. “I had to write with more consideration in view of Rode’s playing,” he wrote to Archduke Rudolph. “We like to have more tumultuous passages in our finales, but they do not suit R – which embarrassed me somewhat”

A tumultuous finale would surely have been out of place in a work as serene as Op.96. The essentially peaceful first movement begins unpretentiously with a beautifully simple main theme consisting only of a trill and three other notes. There is a rather more tense, though still happy, tune in the dominant, with a pressing rhythm and rising melodic inflection. But Beethoven is no more concerned with developing his second subject in his last violin sonata than he was in his first. This time he concentrates on an interesting harmonic discovery in the exposition’s closing theme. When the second subject does re-appear it is to    indicate that what one might have assumed was a development of the trill theme was actually the start of the recapitulation.

The piano begins the slow movement with a chorale-like melody which the violin takes up only after it has improvised a sustained and decorative song of its own. This prompts the piano into returning the compliment before a series of delicate little runs on the two instruments leads out of the Adagio and directly into the next movement – a pastoral Scherzo with muffled stamping of rustic feet in the outer sections and a quick Ländler in the middle.

Rode’s specially written finale is an informal set of variations on what might well have been a popular Viennese song. Certainly, it is a delightful tune which inspires a lovely Adagio centrepiece, with rapid chromatic runs on the piano in the place of violinistic tumult. Even then, according to an observer of the first performance, “the piano part was played far better, more in accordance with the spirit of the piece, and with more feeling than that of the violin.” This was presumably more a matter of the Archduke’s familiarity with the idiom than any inability on Rode’s part to survive the quick last section of the finale – the running semiquaver version of the original theme, the quiet fugue, and the witty coda.

Like the “Archduke” Trio of 1811, the Violin Sonata in G Op.96, was dedicated to Beethoven’s greatest patron, the Archduke Rudolph. It was first performed at the house of another aristocratic patron, Prince Lichnowsky, on 29 December 1812 by Pierre Rode and the Archduke himself. Rode was the celebrated rival of that other famous French violinist, Rudolphe Kreutzer, to whom Beethoven had dedicated his previous Violin Sonata (in A, Op.47). Rode had arrived in Vienna a few days before but had played disappointingly and Beethoven had to composer a specially tactful last movement for him: “I had to write with more consideration in view of Rode’s playing,” he wrote to Archduke Rudolph. “We like to have more tumultuous passages in our finales, but they do not suit R. – which embarrassed me somewhat.”

But, surely, a tumultuous finale would have been out of place in a work as serene as Op.96. The first movement is essentially peaceful, though by no means inactive, and it is unselfconscious in expression as well as subtle in construction. It begins unpretentiously with a beautifully simple main theme consisting only of a trill and three other notes. There is a rather more tense, though still happy, tune in the dominant, with a pressing rhythm and rising melodic inflection. But Beethoven is no more concerned to develop his second subject in his last violin sonata than he was in his first. This time he concentrates on an interesting harmonic discovery in the exposition’s closing theme. When the second subject does re-appear it is to    indicate that what one might have assumed was a development of the trill theme was the start of the recapitulation. In fact, but for a longer exploration of the possibilities of the newly discovered chord and a coda on the trill theme, it is undemonstratively all over at this point.

The piano begins the slow movement with a chorale-like melody of the sort familiar from the piano sonatas. Only when it has improvised a sustained and decorative song of its own does the violin give voice to the opening melody. This prompts the piano into imitating the violin’s song before a series of delicate little runs on the two instruments leads out of the Adagio and directly into the next movement – a pastoral Scherzo with muffled stamping of rustic feet in the outer sections and a quick Ländler in the middle.

Rode’s specially written finale is an informal set of variations on what might well have been a popular Viennese song. Certainly, it is a delightful tune which inspires a lovely Adagio centrepiece, with rapid chromatic runs on the piano in the place of violinistic tumult. Even then, according to an observer of the first performance, “the piano part was played far better, more in accordance with the spirit of the piece, and with more feeling than that of the violin.” This was presumably more a matter of the Archduke’s familiarity with the idiom than any inability on Rode’s part to survive the quick last section of the finale – the running semiquaver version of the original theme, the quiet fugue, and the witty coda.

Gerald Larner © 2017