This is the fifth disc in a series that sets Beethoven’s violin sonatas in their social and musical context. Beethoven’s three Sonatas Op 12, mark the beginning of an extraordinary group of works which would climax with the Op 96 Sonata which he completed at the end of 1812. Beethoven and Romberg shared a history as string players. In 1790, Romberg joined Beethoven in the electoral court orchestra in Bonn, led by Beethoven’s erstwhile violin teacher, Franz Anton Ries. This laid the foundations for Beethoven when he instituted his team of string players in Vienna in the years following his arrival there in 1792.

Beethoven’s three sonatas for Piano and Violin Op. 30 were dedicated to Tsar Alexander 1st. He had been educated by his grandmother Catherine the Great and was considered to be a true child of the Enlightenment. The three manuscripts of the Op. 30 sonatas are among the most expressive of the surviving original material of Beethoven’s chamber music. These works were a direct result of the collaboration with Beethoven’s violin teacher, Ignaz Schuppanzigh – who was in fact the dedicatee of the Op. 12 sonatas. The final piece on the CD was written by another significant influence on Beethoven’s work – Franz Clement. This is the third disc in a series that sets Beethoven’s sonatas in their social and musical context – in this case the context being Schuppanzigh.

Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Aaron Short have assembled an interesting program mostly of very rarely heard works. The sonata is, of course, standard repertoire and has been recorded by nearly every major violinist since Fritz Kreisler and Szymon Goldberg; and, whileSkaerved and Shorr don't have big-time soloist pizzazz, they know their way around classical scores better than most big-time soloists, and this is a very satisfying, intelligent interpretation of that score.