Beethoven’s three Sonatas for Piano and Violin Op. 30 were dedicated to Tsar Alexander 1st. He had been educated by his grandmother Catherine the Great and was considered to be a true child of the Enlightenment.

The three manuscripts of the Op. 30 sonatas are among the most expressive of the surviving original material of Beethoven’s chamber music. These works were a direct result of the collaboration with Beethoven’s violin teacher, Ignaz Schuppanzigh – who was in fact the dedicatee of the Op. 12 sonatas. The final piece on this CD was written by another significant influence on Beethoven’s work – Franz Clement.

This is the third disc in a series that sets Beethoven’s sonatas in their social and musical context – in this case the context being Schuppanzigh.

Peter Sheppard Skærved is the dedicatee of well over 200 works for violin, from a wide range of composers - indeed from Hans Werner Henze and David Matthews, to Jörg Widmann and Sadie Harrison. He has appeared as concerto artist and chamber recitalist, and has given hundreds of unaccompanied recitals in over 30 countries. He has one of the broadest discographies of any violinist, stretching from pioneering recordings of Michael Haydn concerti, through to the first recording of the original version of George Rochberg's concerto, recorded under the composer's supervision in Germany. Peter is also the leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, violinist of Ensemble Triolog (Munich) and the long-term duo partner of pianist Aaron Shorr.

Since settling in the United Kingdom in 1985, Aaron Shorr has gained an increasing reputation for his diverse and highly acclaimed concerts.He studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and the Royal Academy of Music in London, his teachers having included Alexander Kelly, Solomon Mikowski, André Watts and Joseph Seiger. He has since toured throughout the world performing concertos, solo recitals and chamber music. Aaron's recordings, as well as the ongoing "Beethoven Explored" series for Metier, also include discs of rare Schubert, music by Cesar Cui and by Sadie Harrison. In 1992, Aaron was appointed Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music.