AVS Shared Recital: Reimagining Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas for Viola

The idea of transcribing Beethoven’s violin music for viola stems from a long-standing artistic and pedagogical goal: to make Beethoven’s revolutionary music more accessible to viola students. Unlike violinists and cellists, violists lack dedicated sonata repertoire by Beethoven that provides an immersive experience necessary for nuanced understanding of the composer’s style. To address this, I began transcribing Beethoven’s violin sonatas for viola. These sonatas, intimately scored for a single instrument and piano, contain all the stylistic and technical challenges essential for a comprehensive study of Beethoven’s musical voice. My approach aligns with many other successful viola repertoire additions including Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata, the Brahms clarinet sonatas, and the Franck Violin Sonata, all originally conceived for other instruments yet now integral to the viola repertoire.

My transcriptions leverage the viola’s warm mid-range and the clarity of its a-string, adapting octave placements to suit the instrument’s voice within the ensemble. So far, I’ve transcribed and premiered six of the ten sonatas, with plans to complete the cycle by the 2025-26 season. These sonatas have been performed across the U.S. and received their Australian premiere in Sydney in May 2025. I plan to publish the transcriptions and record two sonatas with my duo partner, Hyunsoo Kim, within the next year.

The positive response from colleagues and students, some of whom will program these transcriptions in their own recitals, has been deeply encouraging. I will be presenting a similar presentation at the 2026 International Viola Congress in Paris and look forward to introducing this repertoire to more violists to showcase how naturally Beethoven’s music can resonate on the viola.