i. Allegro ma non tanto
ii. Scherzo. Allegro molto
iii. Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace
On 14 September 1808, the publisher Gottfried Christoph Härtel signed a remarkable contract with Beethoven for his most recent works: the document signed by the two of them that day shows that Breitkopf and Härtel had acquired the rights to the Fifth Symphony, the Pastoral Symphony, the two Piano Trios Op.70 and the Cello Sonata in A major. The Cello Sonata had been written in the winter of 1807–8 and by the time of its publication it bore a dedication to Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein, a friend of the composer who helped him with financial matters as well as a being a talented amateur cellist. The first performance was given in Vienna on 5 March 1809, at a concert by the cellist Nikolaus Kraft with Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann (to whom Beethoven later dedicated his Piano Sonata Op.101). As in the Kreutzer Sonata for violin and piano, Beethoven begins this Cello Sonata with the string soloist unaccompanied, introducing the simple but utterly memorable opening idea, answered by the piano. The spacious melodic material of this movement shows Beethoven at his most flowing and song-like. The Scherzo, in A minor, is full of tense syncopation, followed by an Adagio that begins as if it is to be one of Beethoven’s most serene slow movements, but it turns out to be a mere eighteen bars long, leading straight into the finale – a brilliant combination of structural tension and sunny lyricism.

Nigel Simeone © 2011