Beethoven First Years
When Beethoven first moved to Vienna in 1792 as a young 22 year-old, he was mostly engaged as a performer. It was Beethoven’s first patron Prince Karl Lichnowsky, who not only provided him with a roof over his head, but also opportunities to perform his fresh new compositions at weekly soirées held at Lichnowsky’s home.
There, Beethoven started to establish himself as a composer and for the next 10 years (now known as the early period of his creative life), received continuous paid commissions for works he was able to make uniquely different from one another, while retaining an immediately recognizable personal style.
Join 2015 Honens Prize Laureate Italian pianist Luca Buratto, and home-grown Singaporean solo violinist Tee Khoon Tang, as we discover 3 works from these early productive years – his joyful Sonata for Piano and Violin Op. 12 No. 3 in E flat major dedicated to Antonio Salieri; his intricate Solo Piano Sonata ‘Pastorale’ Op. 28 in D major; and his turbulent Sonata for Piano and Violin Op. 30 No. 2 in c minor.
“Famous artists always labor under an embarrassment; - therefore first works are the best, though they may have sprung out of dark ground.” Ludwig van Beethoven