‘Sonata per il Pianoforte ed un Violino obligato, scritta in uno stile molto concertante, quasi come d’un concerto. Composta e dedicata al suo amico R. Kreutzer, (....) per L. van Beethoven. Opera 47.’

This was the title given to the first edition of Sonata No. 9, known as the Kreutzer Sonata. It shows Beethoven’s thinking on the piano-violin combination: the piano came first, which obviously had something to do with the virtuoso skills of the master himself on the pianoforte. Not only was Sonata Op. 47 a turning point in Beethoven’s work for piano and violin, but never before had anything been written in this manner for piano and one other instrument. Whereas the keyboard instrument had always been secondary, an accompaniment, the Kreutzer Sonata put an end to this once and for all, The first eight violin sonatas, Op. 12/1-3, Op. 23 and 24, and Op. 30-1/3, were composed between 1798 and 1802, in Beethoven’s first creative period; after the Sonata Op. 47 in 1803, at the beginning of the middle period, he set the genre aside until 1812, the year in which the hushed, reflective tenth sonata, Op. 96 in G major, was written. All in all, the ten Sonatas for piano and violin are an impassioned exposition of Beethoven’s great inventiveness, and all aspects of his composing genius are present in them: the exuberance, the humour, the love for variations (four of the ten sonatas have a movement consisting of a theme with variations and four others have a rondo as the final movement, consisting of a theme and variations), the tenderness and the mystery, in short: an inexhaustible source of inspiration!