Pieter Wispelwey cello ; Piers Lane piano

Beethoven was inspired to compose the earliest works in this evening’s programme, the Cello Sonata in G minor and his 12 Variations on ‘See the conqu’ring hero comes’, after meeting the Prussian king’s principal cellist during a short visit to Berlin in 1796. Pieter Wispelwey and Piers Lane preface these two strikingly original works with the majestic C major sonata he composed in 1815 for another outstanding virtuoso player, Joseph Linke, and two delightful sets of variations on well-known themes from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.