LDV111-2

28 BEETHOVEN ∙ COMPLETE SONATAS AND VARIATIONS FOR CELLO AND PIANO Isn’t it significant that he even went so far as to modify musical form, writing sonatas in two movements, as he also did in the solo piano repertory? Gary Hoffman: Form and content merge. With Beethoven, everything is ‘mobile’, constantly called into question. He took up the challenge of choosing two instruments whose intrinsic differences, rather than their points of convergence, he sensed in his first published work for the combination. Between the Second and Third Sonatas, and thanks to the maturing of his style in so many other genres, as in the ‘Razumovsky’ String Quartets or the Violin Concerto, the relationship between the instruments and the place of the cello changed very significantly. It’s as if he had found, in the Third Sonata, the link between the two instruments, which enabled him to move on to another stage. In fact, when tackling the five sonatas together, performers constantly ask themselves new questions: should they think differently about vibrato, articulations, legato? David Selig: It’s paradoxical to say that we must take into account the way instruments were built in Beethoven’s time, because on the one hand, the markings he provides are intended for specific instruments of his time, and, on the other, he was constantly aware of the evolution of instruments and therefore of sound. I find it fascinating to discover early pianos. It helps us to realise why Beethoven wrote as he did, and what kind of sound he expected. A concrete example: the use of the pedal. Its effect is totally different on a concert grand today, compared to the instruments of the period. Nowadays we have to adjust Beethoven’s precise markings, among other things. We have to find an appropriate balance.