Beethoven’s five sonatas are pillars of cello literature.
Ludwig van Beethoven was the first of the great composers to write cello sonatas after the baroque era, and he remains the only composer to have written a series of sonatas – five in number – in the nineteenth century. Johannes Brahms composed two sonatas in the latter half of the century, and several composers wrote a single cello sonata: Rachmaninoff, Grieg and Chopin, followed by Shostakovich, Barber, Britten and others, but Beethoven’s sonatas are pivotal works in the somewhat sparse literature for cello and piano.
Beethoven was inspired to compose sonatas for the violin or the cello by great performers of his day and by the development of the instrument. At the end of the seventeenth century the most celebrated virtuoso violinist was Giovanni Battista Viotti (1755–1824). He toured, at first in Italy and then in France, where he was enthusiastically received. As the French Revolution progressed, he moved to London, and the last days of his life were spent in Germany.
Although Viotti never gave lessons to any great degree, he was nevertheless the idol of a whole generation of young performers, who went on to become the greatest teachers of their day. Beethoven was familiar with Viotti, both as a performer and as a composer, which may have been a contributory factor to his composing violin sonatas – nine of his ten – around the turn of the century.
Opened every register
The French cellist Jean-Pierre Duport (1741–1818) also went to Berlin, where he was the cello teacher of King Friedrich Wilhelm II and the principal cellist in his court orchestra. Beethoven visited the royal palace in 1796 and composed two cello sonatas dedicated to the king, for which he received a golden snuff-box filled with valuable louis d’or coins. He performed the sonatas with Jean-Pierre’s brother Jean-Louis and, familiar with the capacity of these excellent cellists, wrote for a wider register on the cello in the sonatas (opus 5: 1 and 2) than was customary at the time. The Duport brothers thus had a decisive and lasting influence on cello performance, opening the way for the middle and lower register of the instrument. In 1805 Jean-Louis published the first substantial collection of studies for developing cello technique, a work still considered compulsory for cellists two centuries later, in which Beethoven’s use of the Duports’ ideas is evident.
When Beethoven started work on his cello sonatas, there were no model works by Mozart or Haydn to which he could refer. At the time, the cello was typically a continuo instrument, and piano parts accompanying it were only exceptionally written out. Beethoven’s sonatas liberated the cello from its traditional role and provided it with a complementary accompaniment.
Like Piano Concertos
At the time Beethoven was celebrated as the best pianist and improvisation artist in the world. He does not conceal this in his first two cello sonatas, and in the first there is even a piano cadenza. Some musicologists speak derisively of the sonatas as piano concertos with cello accompaniment. It must however be borne in mind that the sonatas came into being while Beethoven was on tour. To justify his reputation he naturally had to display his capacity as a pianist. Additionally to compose a cello part which showed off the instrument in an exciting, innovative way was no less than remarkable. The cello part moves naturally throughout the entire gamut of expression and tonal registers of the instrument. In both sonatas the first movement starts with a slow introduction, followed by a broad Allegro with bold modulations. The second movements are Rondos.
‘Amid Tears and Sorrow’
A long time expired between the first two cello sonatas and the third, opus 69 in A major, which was completed in 1808. In the meantime Beethoven composed nine violin sonatas. It is said of the last of these, the Kreutzer, opus 47 from 1803, is the most ‘democratic’ chamber music work, as both instruments are of equal importance, each reinforcing the characteristics of the other. The A major Cello Sonata follows up the same idea. It is subtitled Inter Lacrimas et Luctum (Amid tears and sorrow), a mood not instantly apparent, yet behind the lyrical atmosphere of the piece a melancholy tone constantly lurks.
The last two cello sonatas, opus 102, were completed almost ten years later, this time inspired by Joseph Linke, principal cellist in Count Razumovsky’s orchestra in Vienna. Razumovsky’s palace had burned down, and Linke spent the summer of 1818 at the residence of Count Erdödy in Jedlersee, where Beethoven was also a guest. These were the last chamber works with piano that Beethoven wrote, and in form and expression they pave the way for his last great string quartets.
Text: Erling Dahl jr
English text: Roger Martin