Written in 1815 during the composer’s final creative period, and at a time when the piano was becoming a more sonorous instrument, Beethoven’s Cello Sonatas Nos. 4 and 5 exploit the cello’s cantabile potential more fully than was previously possible. The great Sonata No. 5 features the first real slow movement of all the sonatas, a haunting Adagio in which both instruments are treated as equal partners. In the finale, an Allegro fugato, the musical argument is even more concentrated as Beethoven explores the extreme range of the developing keyboard instrument. This disc concludes Maria Kliegel’s recordings of the complete music for cello and piano by Beethoven. Volumes 1 and 2 are available on Naxos 8.555785 and 8.555786.