How do I simultaneously play two notes of the same pitch (i.e. two notes in unison), but with different accents?
I usually know what it means when a note has both a stem pointing up and another pointing down (What does this note have a stem pointing up and another pointing down?), but what if it has something like a staccato in one voice, while something else (e.g. legato) in the other? In the example below, should I play the second to last note in the bass clef as a 16th-note staccato or hold it as a regular quarter note?
(Excerpt from the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 2, Op. 2/2)
Also, is there a general rule for playing this (like “hold down for the full duration of the longer note value”, which seems to usually be the case), or is it just contextual, or perhaps a matter of interpretation that’s up to the performer?
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Under the circumstances, you're going to have to fake it. The tenor needs to be held, so you'll need to give an impression of a staccato note at unison. You do this by creating a commonality between the held note and the staccato bass notes, and that will likely be by stressing all the bass notes (including the held one) very slightly. This is usually a tendency when playing staccato anyway, and very definitely when playing staccatissimo like this passage.
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