After the turbulent darkness of Beethoven’s 7th Violin Sonata, the 8th is pure joy, completing the Opus 30 arc with bright rays of sunshine and fun. The first movement proclaims that it’s party time, and even the occasional ominous rumblings don’t upset the general merriment.
#Beethoven250 Day 153
Violin Sonata No. 8 in G Major (Opus 30, No. 3), 1802
All-star chamber music can be extraordinary. Here French violinist Renaud Capuçon (@RCapucon) & Argentine pianist Martha Argerich team up.
Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 8 basks in so much joy that it doesn’t even have a slow movement, but instead a non-minuet with the tempo (and meter) of a minuet, at times reminiscent of a lullaby.
The final movement of Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 8 is a gloriously crazed country dance. Angus Watson calls it “eccentric, unbuttoned and hilarious,” Jan Swafford says “deliciously whimsical,” and William Kinderman references “the high comic style forged by Haydn.”
#Beethoven250 Day 153
Violin Sonata No. 8 in G Major (Opus 30, No. 3), 1802
Midori Goto in her Carnegie Hall Debut in 1990, days before her 19th birthday.
Even in the periods of utter despair as Beethoven experienced during the summer of 1802, he always found expressions of joy. No one else can convey with such vividness the emergence into light after long treks through the gloomy and seemingly interminable tunnels of despondency.