Beethoven, Tolstoy and the ‘Kreutzer Sonata’

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Beethoven, Tolstoy and the ‘Kreutzer Sonata’

Published: 14 Mar. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Na Sung-in

The author is a music critic and director of the classical music brand Poongwoldang.

In 1804, when Beethoven composed the “Kreutzer Sonata” (1889), his primary concern was the emancipation of the piano. He elevated what had long been relegated to a mere “accompanying” instrument, placing it on equal footing with the solo violin. Before the sonic world Beethoven unveiled, conventional notions of instrumental hierarchy lost their place.

Eighty-five years later, Tolstoy drew upon Beethoven’s masterpiece as the thematic foundation for his novella “The Kreutzer Sonata.” Imagine a spirit that longs for freedom, much like Beethoven’s liberated piano. But what happens when societal conventions suppress that longing? In music, an omnipotent composer may skillfully orchestrate harmony between freedom and order, but can the same be said for a world riddled with absurdity and injustice?

Ludwig van Beethoven. "Beethoven mit der Missa solemnis" (1819) by Joseph Karl Stieler

At the heart of the story lies a brutal crime of passion. A husband murders his wife, an amateur pianist, who had been enjoying chamber music sessions with a violinist. There was nothing illicit between them — only a shared solace in music, a means to escape the monotony of married life. Yet, when the husband sees an expression of ecstasy on his wife’s face, one he himself had never witnessed before, jealousy ignites within him. Like a musician caught in the momentum of a rising crescendo, his rage intensifies, culminating in an act of violence.

“The Kreutzer Sonata.” (1901) by René-Xavier Prinet

Had it been Mozart, perhaps disaster could have been averted. But Kreutzer is no tame composition. It demands fervent engagement, a spontaneous exchange of musical ideas. Its technical challenges are enough to set the body ablaze with passion. Yet no matter how much the music might have fanned the flames of jealousy, lurking beneath it all was selfishness — the inability to empathize, the blind insistence on one’s own freedom at the expense of another’s. Tolstoy borrowed Beethoven’s sonata to deliver a scathing critique of a patriarchal society’s ugliness.

Another generation later, in 1923, Czech composer Leos Janacek turned his thoughts to the ill-fated woman. Through the medium of a string quartet, he gave voice to her despair. Amid fleeting romantic melodies and simple folk rhythms, one can hear the scraping of bows against strings — a sound of mourning. Listen closely: It is a requiem. A cry that was never allowed to be heard, the voice of an unhealed wound, of a pain that found no sympathy.

Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.