Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata (Violin Sonata No. 9) has primed the creative pumps of plenty of other artists. Tolstoy wrote a book about it. Prinet painted this picture of it. Leos Janacek wrote a string quartet about it. There was even a silent movie, starring Hollywood vamp Theda Bara. Today, we'll hear a bit of the original, plus the Janacek version, from a performance at Washington's Smithsonian.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Leos Janacek
: Second Movement from Sonata for Violin and Piano
Violinist Josef Suk and pianist Jan Panenka
Johann Sebastian Bach
: Concerto for Violin and Oboe, BWV 1060
Violinist Brian Lewis and oboist Alecia Lawyer with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and conductor Tanya Ratner
St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, Houston
Cesar Franck
: Prelude, Fugue, and Variations
Pianist Anastasia Markina
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe, Arizona
Leos Janacek
: String Quartet No. 1 ("The Kreutzer Sonata")
Violinists Miho Saegusa and Jessica Lee, violist Mark Holloway, and cellist Na-Young Baek
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Ludwig van Beethoven
: Finale from Violin Sonata No. 9 in A, Op. 47 ("Kreutzer")
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter
Hour 2
Johann Baptist Georg Neruda
: Vivace from Concerto in E-flat
Sergei Nakariakov, trumpet, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Hugh Wolff
Ludwig van Beethoven
: "Fur Elise"
Pianist Valentina Lisitsa
Sanibel Music Festival, Sanibel Island, Florida
Paul Taffanel
: Wind Quintet
The Avalon Wind Quintet
Wartburg Castle, Eisenach, Germany
Ralph Vaughan Williams
: "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with conductor Douglas Boyd
International Chamber Orchestra Festival, St. Paul, Minnesota
Mark Kilstofte
: "You [unfolding]"
Cellist Leslie Nash
Merkin Concert Hall, New York City
