Janine Jansen and Denis Kozhukhin

At the time of writing this Sonata for Violin and Piano, Schubert had made a name for himself in the Viennese music world as a symphonic and lieder composer. Nevertheless, chamber music had always been part of his everyday musical practice with family and friends. This sonata, in particular, is very personal, and now far removed from the influence of Mozart whom he admired. It has a higher degree of technical difficulty than previous violin sonatas. Similarly, Johannes Brahms’ last violin sonata, in four movements and dedicated to Hans von Bülow, is extremely concise and dramatic, in contrast to the previous ones and in line with other works of the same period. Written almost a century earlier, Beethoven's sonata dedicated to Rodolphe Kreutzer - who never played it - has inspired novels, paintings, and symphonies. It is an unusual work, both for the technical demands of the violin part, and for the diversity of affections and emotions permeating it, which range from fury to contemplation and a joyful ending.