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. These collaborations laid the ground for the innovations of the cycle of piano/violin sonatas from 1798 to 1812.