Kreutzer sonata beethoven oistrakh biography

This article was first published in The Strad's April 2004 issue.

Among sonatas for violin and piano, I cannot think of any whose existence is accompanied by more bizaree stories, or whose interpretation poses as many problems as Beethoven's Sonata no.9, the 'Kreutzer'.

To understand the title 'Kreutzer' we must know the circumstances of the first performance: this sonata was written for violinist George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower.

He gave the premiere with Beethoven at the piano in Augarten, just outside Vienna, on 24 May 1803, at eight o'clock in the morning. Afterwards, they apparently quarrelled and the composer decided to dedicate the sonata to Rodolphe Kreutzer, author of the famous violin studies, whose 'allegro playing was characterised by strong sound production, and wide bowing' (according to Ernst Ludwig Gerber, in Millant, Raffin & Gaudfroy's L'Archet), but who 'apparently disliked the too frequent short bowings (détaché and spiccato) and this may per