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The Beethoven Violin Sonatas: History, Criticism, Performance

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This book is for the fairly serious scholar of music interested in an in-depth examination of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas. It is not for beginners in the study of music history. A high degree of familiarity with music theory and with the works in question, as well as with Beethoven's piano sonatas and many other works, is assumed. In that context, however, the book is a treasure, with a great deal of truly original and captivating insights into these unique and emblematic works. This originality of a necessity creates rather sharp stylistic and theoretical differences among the perspectives of the various authors. Seek the uniform taxonomical approach elsewhere. Musical citations are abundant and beautifully laid out on the page, although occasionally their sheer size demands that they not be placed immediately opposite the relevant text. The notes and bibliographical references are very useful to students seeking further study of the composer and his world.