Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas – Part I

The violinist Johan Dalene is something of a phenomenon. Still very young – born in 2000 – he already has an impressive CV. In 2019, he won First Prize at the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition and, in the same year, received the Norwegian Soloist Prize. He has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, been named Young Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine, and won a Swedish Grammy for his recording of Nielsen’s and Sibelius’s violin concertos with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Now we hear him in a recital of Beethoven’s first four violin sonatas – chamber music of elegance, vitality and a spirit of experimentation, in which the first three reflect the legacy of Mozart and Haydn. In the fourth, Beethoven shifts from major to minor and charges the music with a wholly new dramatic intensity.

Dalene is joined by the Norwegian pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, an internationally acclaimed artist. Their collaboration goes back several years; they have performed together at Carnegie Hall in New York, and in 2023 released their album Stained Glass on the BIS label.