Sunday, February 13, 2011

A Bit of Beethoven for Valentine's Day

Last night, Kim and I made the one-block walk to our local college campus theatre where two faculty members (Matt Cooper, piano and Lisa Robertson, violin) were putting forth one of their periodic violin and piano recitals. Among other pieces (Janacek, et.al.), they performed Beethoven's Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 30, in C Minor. Wanting to make immediate comparisons of that performance upon returning home, I jumped online and we spent the next couple of hours listening to many different interpretations.

They ranged from an interesting version by the very young Yehudi Menuhin on violin with his sister, Hephzibah, on piano, from many years ago (date?), to this one (also date unknown, obviously several years old), with Itzhak Perlman's violin and Vladimir Ashkenazy's piano:



Another interesting performance was by Jacqueline Wedderburn-Maxwell, who I understand is a teenage South African violinist who started playing at age five, now studies in England, and seems to be a rising star:

2 comments:

  1. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Beethoven C Minor Sonata performance had been placed in your pre-Valentines day blog! I hope you enjoyed it. Strangely enough, I studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School for 2 years when I was 10. I also thoroughly enjoy Yehudi's interpretation of the Beethoven. Hope your Valentines day was lovely. Thanks for the support. Jacqueline Wedderburn-Maxwell.

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  2. @Jacqueline: You are most welcome! The listening pleasure is mine.

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