Three (or more…) Kreutzer Sonata’s
Well, you see, it got to to thinking, it did. It being the subtitle, the alternative name, to Janacek’s string quartet number one. It’s called “The Kreutzer Sonata”, which initially seems more than just a little weird, as it’s not a sonata at all. Now, the other piece of information I gleaned from somewhere in my limited musical past and experience is that Beethoven’s violin sonata number 9 is also named this. Far more appropriately.
The really interesting thing is that the Janacek isn’t named after the Beethoven piece. Not directly anyway. It snakes through Tolstoy first. You see, apparently the T-dog (yeah, I’m calling Tolstoy the T-dog, you got a problem with that, fool?) wrote a book - also called The Kreutzer Sonata - referring to the emotional intensity of the Beethoven piece. Janacek’s version is based on that book. Confusing huh?
Even more confusing, but somewhat unifying, is that Sasha Chorny wrote a poem called The Kreutzer Sonata, referring to T-dog’s version, which Shostakovich set to music in op. 109, Satires (Pictures of the Past). In that song he uses a musical reference to Beethoven’s version. The Kreutzer Sonata really gets around.
Anyway, I now feel like I should go listen to the Beethoven and read the Tolstoy book.