The Black Violinist Who Premiered Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata

“Born in 1778, in Biała Podlaska, Poland, [George Polgreen] Bridgetower started playing the violin at an early age. His father John Frederick Bridgetower (probably of West Indian descent) was a servant of Joseph Haydn’s patron: the Hungarian Prince Esterházy. And the young Bridgetower was tutored by Haydn himself. … Later, Bridgetower went on to give the first public performance of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 (‘Kreutzer’),