Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Steven Isserlis (cello), Robert Levin (fortepiano) Hyperion CDA 67981/2 (2 CDs)

The cello sonata as we know it today was effectively created by Beethoven in the two virtuosic Sonatas, Op 5, he wrote in 1796 for the King of Prussia. The composer added three more, the largest and most lyrical, his
Op 69, in 1808 (long the most popular of the five), and in 1815 the pair of sonatas, Op 102, remarkable for the complexity and compression of their musical thinking. Steven Isserlis, here playing the Marquis de Corberon Stradivarius, and Robert Levin, playing a Paul McNulty copy of a Walter & Sohn fortepiano of 1805, also offer three sets of variations and a cello arrangement of
the early Horn Sonata. Their performances are as fresh in manner as a voyage of discovery, and always notable for the transparency of balance between the instruments. url.ie/4qdb