Beethoven: Complete Cello Sonatas & Variations

Filling “only” two hours, the complete works for cello and piano are quintessential and vintage Beethoven. The two youthful Opus 5 sonatas are written in virtuoso concerto style, with an especially glittering role for the piano (Beethoven was a tremendous pianist in his early years), the sonata Op. 69 is in the expansive, sonorous and deep-feeling tonal language of Beethoven’s Middle-Period, whereas the two Late sonatas Op. 102 are marvels of originality, experiment, “quirkiness” and humanity.