Excerpt from programme notes written for Love's Delusion by Philippe Borer
This is one of the most impressive works in the violin's repertory, imbued with the symphonic ideal and, significantly, composed just before the Eroica.
It was originally dedicated to George Bridgetower (1779-1860), an outstanding violinist of Beethoven's day. This son of an African prince and a European mother had been trained under Barthélemon and Giornovichi and held the position of the Prince of Wales' first violinist at the Brighton Pavilion. Beethoven spoke highly of him both as a soloist and as a quartet player and thoroughly enjoyed rehearsing and performing with him. However, after a quarrel (apparently over a girl) the dedication of the sonata was changed in favour of Rodolphe Kreutzer, who, as the story goes, rather looked down on the work.
It was nevertheless Kreutzer's protégé Lambert Massart who was to become a vital link in the tradition of the work, playing it himself (with Liszt as a partner) and teaching it to his pupils at the Paris Conservatoire, notably Wieniawski and Kreisler.
Henri Wieniawski (1835-1880) deserves a special mention as an untiring ambassador of the work and, possibly, as its finest interpreter ever. Beethoven's sonatas occupied a important place in Wieniawski's repertoire and, according to contemporary reports, he rendered the Kreutzer in an innovatory manner, full of romantic passion and lyricism in the outer movements and with exquisite taste and delicacy in the variations. This was his favourite cheval de bataille as he liked to call it, which he played throughout Europe, Russia and America with the greatest pianists of the age as his partners, including Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt, Louis Brassin, Anton Rubinstein, Alfred Jaëll, Theodore Leschetizky, and Hans von Bülow.
Beethoven's work on the Kreutzer Sonata followed an unusual course. The last movement, a 6/8 Presto in the character of an Italian tarantella, was originally intended as the Finale of the earlier sonata Op.30, No.1, but was finally discarded, probably because it would have overwhelmed the rest of the sonata. When embarking upon the Kreutzer, Beethoven knew that he was working towards this pre-existing Finale and he took care to integrate the new movements with it and to proportion them accordingly. Thus, an analysis reveals a Golden sectioning towards the end of the second movement as well as thematic and structural correspondences between the outer movements. It is evident from many details that the first movement is the Finale's counterpart.