Steven Isserlis and Robert Levin

Ludwig Van Beethoven: 12 Variations on Handel's `See the conqu'ring hero comes' for cello & piano, WoO.45
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No.1 in F, Op.5 No.1
Ludwig Van Beethoven: 12 Variations on 'Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen' (from The Magic Flute), Op.66 for cello and piano
Interval
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Horn Sonata in F, Op.17 transc. for cello
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Cello Sonata No.3 in A, Op.69

After cycles of the complete Beethoven symphonies, piano concertos, string quartets and piano sonatas in recent years, Southbank Centre continues its Beethoven journey presenting the complete cello sonatas in two concerts performed by internationally renowned artists Steven Isserlis and Robert Levin. Steven Isserlis has described playing these sonatas as 'a journey through a life', covering as they do the early, middle and late periods of Beethoven's creative life.

This first concert features two sets of variations - on a majestic theme by Handel (known to some as the hymn-tune 'Thine Be the Glory'), and on a lively melody from Mozart's Magic Flute. These frame the energetic classicism of Beethoven's First Cello Sonata, written when he was still a young man. The sophisticated Third Sonata dates from Beethoven's productive Middle Period, heard here alongside an arrangement of his exuberant Horn Sonata of 1800.

Further concert on Sunday 29 April 2012.

Steven Isserlis cello
Robert Levin fortepiano