Conversations on Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas

Watch as Singapore chamber ensemble More Than Music share their experiences performing and recording all 10 Violin Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, and read More Than Music co-founder Abigail Sin’s introduction to the landmark project.

A Letter to Our Listeners

By Abigail Sin

It is gently ironic that we would not have considered recording the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas in 2020 if not for COVID-19. This project was conceived in the middle of Singapore’s circuit breaker, as we started to realise the extent to which the pandemic was altering our lives. Even though COVID-19 wiped out our original plans for the year, it also, strangely enough, yielded circumstances that were ripe for this monumental endeavour. With live concerts and travel plans cancelled, we had time to dive into the repertoire, learning new notes and exploring familiar sonatas anew. There was a hunger and eagerness to make music together again and to share this experience with others, after weeks of isolating at home. More pragmatically speaking, the government subsidies and funding that became available during this time enabled this dream project, which we might not ordinarily have been able to afford, to become a reality.

Chamber music during an unprecedented global crisis—on one hand, we must acknowledge the absurdity of the notion, and indeed recognise that it is a privilege to be healthy, safe and enabled to make music. Yet there is something beautiful and poignant about the act of turning to music and to each other. Chamber music compels us to be honest and open, teaching us to empathise and to communicate. Carrying our unique insights and insecurities, we affirm, challenge, magnify and transform each other. As we encounter the Sonatas and engage with our fellow musicians, we also hold ourselves up to the light and give voice to our shared present.

We rehearsed and recorded the 10 Violin Sonatas over a period of two months from July to September. Each video is, in a way, a message in a bottle, set adrift from the summer of 2020. Some performances capture the fresh excitement of getting to know a piece and a partner for the first time. Other performances reflect old friendships and personal histories with particular Sonatas. They are snapshots of the results of the cross-pollination of our musical personalities, as we experimented, absorbed, questioned, listened and learned.

It is a little strange to think that we must try to encapsulate this deeply-enriching, transformative process in a single performance. Each performance displays our musical convictions, along with spontaneous decisions and a myriad of artistic potentialities that may not be fully tangible. There were triumphs and happy accidents in making these recordings, as well as frustrations and missed opportunities. If we were to do it all again a year from now, or even a month from now, we would surely produce different performances.

These 10 Violin Sonatas are themselves like messages in bottles set adrift more than 200 years ago by Beethoven, who probably never imagined that they would be washing up on the shores of Singapore in 2020! We catch glimpses of our shared humanity in this music, as we take delight in a beautiful turn of phrase, get swept up in a rush of fervour, or feel the pangs of loss. There is humour and wide-eyed wonderment, along with deep anguish and even violence. We can almost picture Beethoven revelling in and rebelling against the musical language he had inherited, forging new paths and speaking as a witness to his time.

As we explore the Sonatas as listeners and performers today, we re-imagine this music and the world of its creator, bringing them to life for our 21st century ears and sensibilities. These Sonatas are not museum pieces to be passively kept behind glass and delicately preserved. They demand a response. We can immerse ourselves in these works and make them our own. Be provoked by them. Be intrigued by them. Be moved and thrilled by them. Better yet, get elbows deep in them and play them for yourselves!

We are delighted to share our journeys with these Sonatas with you through these videos. It is our hope that they will launch you on your own journeys of discovery and be useful to you.