Beethoven, 3 Cello Sonatas

Beethoven composed five sonatas for violoncello and piano, spanning his whole career and stylistic evolution, the first two being early works, the third belonging to his “middle” period, and the two final sonatas representing his “late” period. The third sonata in A major is very classical in its symmetry of form and its division of parts between the cello and piano, creating a masterful dialogue between the instruments, whilst the fourth and fifth sonatas, published under the same opus number, are much more introspective or even mystical in their musical content and character, experimenting with instrumental sonorities and relying heavily on a polyphonic style of writing Beethoven developed during his later years, with many parallells to the final piano sonatas. Even by todays standards the two final cello sonatas have a startlingly modern sound – they are truly timeless gems in the chamber music repertoire.
Tibor Molnár (violoncello) & David Ernst Molnar (piano). Recorded in 2014.