Who was Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved”? And how did a composer who never married express love, longing and passion through his music?

The Engegård Quartet opens the concert with the beautiful Harp Quartet, named after the harp-like notes that pass between the instruments. Violist Nora Taksdal then takes us into the mystery surrounding Beethoven’s famous love letter to a woman whose identity is still debated.

Baritone Halvor Melien and pianist Thormod Rønning Kvam perform the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte — To the Distant Beloved — in which six songs form a continuous story of love and longing.

The evening concludes with Olli Mustonen performing the Appassionata, one of Beethoven’s most dramatic piano sonatas. Here we encounter passion at its most intense, with tremendous force driving the music towards an almost desperate conclusion.

Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74 — “Harp”
Engegård Quartet

Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved
Talk by Nora Taksdal

Interval

An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98
Halvor Melien, baritone
Thormod Rønning Kvam, piano

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 — “Appassionata”
Olli Mustonen, piano