Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 2

Beethoven, a tyro pianist, writes for the cello…Adrian Brendel and Tim Horton perform a daring balancing act.
The Sonata in G minor, Op. 5 No.2 has only two movements: an expressive and extended Adagio imbued with drama and lyricism, and an Allegro – a superb two-hander that slips quietly out from under the Adagio’s unbelievably long silences before erupting in an arpeggiated finale so tempestuous, Beethoven’s friend Domenico Dragonetti couldn’t resist showing him how the cello part sounded on his bass. Beethoven was bowled over. According to his biographer Alexander Thayer, "he sprang up and threw his arms around both player and instrument." The virtuosic passages for double basses in the Fifth Symphony, where they frequently double with the cellos, have their origins here, and scotch the common assumption that Beethoven’s love of music at low registers was a product of his later deafness.

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Adrian Brendel, Beethoven, cello, Malvern, sonata, Tim Horton, 5th symphony, fifth symphony, and dragonetti