Hilary Hahn & Andreas Haefliger in recital

Beethoven’s final two violin sonatas performed by two of today’s finest soloists, here working as a duo. The ‘Kreutzer’ sonata was written in 1803 for the Afro-Polish violinist George Bridgetower, with whom the composer subsequently fell out; this gifted Black performer spent much of his life in England and died in Peckham in 1860. (The eventual dedicatee, Rodolphe Kreutzer, never played the piece.) Written for virtuoso Philippe Rode, the Op. 96 work (1812) marks a point at which Beethoven’s late style might be said to begin.