# Beethoven's 'Bridgetower Sonata?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176/beethoven-s-bridgetower-sonata
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176/beethoven-s-bridgetower-sonata.md
Podcast: [Composers Datebook](https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176)
Published: 2026-05-24T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/composers_datebook/2026/05/24/datebook_20260524_128.mp3
Audio file: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/composers_datebook/2026/05/24/datebook_20260524_128.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/composers-datebook-550176/episodes/beethoven-s-bridgetower-sonata
Duration seconds: 120

## Resource

Synopsis On today’s date in 1803, violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower, 33, and pianist and composer Ludwig van Beethoven, 32, gave the first performance in Vienna of a new sonata for violin and piano, a chamber work now regarded as one of Beethoven’s greatest. At the first rehearsal, Bridgetower had to read from Beethoven’s manuscript score — no easy task considering Beethoven’s poor penmanship — and at one point felt compelled to improvise a passage, which so enchanted Beethoven that he added Bridgetower’s improvisation to his score. In fact, the two young men became fast friends, and were inseparable for a time. Bridgetower was an English violin virtuoso born in Poland of a European mother and an African father. His Viennese friendship with Beethoven came to a sudden end, he later claimed, when the two men became interested in the same young lady. And so, even though it should be known as the Bridgetower Sonata , when this music was published as Beethoven’s Op. 47, Beethoven dedicated the music to another contemporary virtuoso, a French violinist named Kreutzer, who apparently never performed it. Despite that fact, to this day, the work is known as Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata . Music Played in Today's Program Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Violin Sonata No. 9 ( Kreutzer ); Pamela Frank, violin; Claude Frank, piano; MusicMasters 67087

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