The Pulitzer Prize winner on her new book Sonata Mulattica
George Polgreen Bridgetower was born in 1780, the son of a Polish woman and an 'African prince'. He became a child prodigy at the violin, performing in Britain and Europe, to much public acclaim. On travelling to Vienna he met Beethoven, who impressed by his playing skills, dedicated a sonata to him. But all did not go smoothly between the two musicians. Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize-winner and former US Poet Laureate, talks to Jenni about her poetry, and how she came to tell the story of the nineteenth-century virtuoso violinist in her new book, Sonata Mulattica.
Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove is published by W.W. Norton
