Jean-Guihen Queyras & Alexander Melnikov

Just as with his symphonies, piano works and string quartets, Beethoven’s Sonatas for cello and piano can only be described using superlatives: revolutionary, virtuoso, colourful, intense, exceptional and overwhelming. Beethoven had the advantage that the cello sonata genre did not yet exist, meaning that he could start from scratch and confidently create a new standard. The five cello sonatas, spread evenly across his early, middle and late periods, poignantly express the composer’s aesthetic, spiritual and compositional development. What began as light-hearted experiments ended up as chamber music works which in terms of their scope, intensity and technique were revolutionary. Alexander Melnikov and Jean-Guihen Queyras transport you into a gripping dialogue full of fragile lyricism and abundant drama.