Beethoven descendants alive today

Violinists and cellists are like cats and dogs—clearly, nature meant them to fight. They fight about all sorts of things, of course; but one perennial bone of contention is the relative value of Beethoven’s violin sonatas and his cello sonatas. There are ten of the former, which is a source of much crowing for violinists; but cellists can boast with justifiable pride that, unlike the violin sonatas, the five cello sonatas span all three of Beethoven’s major creative epochs—the so-called early, middle and late periods. And therefore we cellists would never dream of swapping, even if the exchange were to gain us five extra works. Actually, the very fact that there are only two sonatas from the early period, one from the middle and two from the late, makes the voyage through the cycle all the more extraordinary. In front of our very ears, Beethoven transforms himself from confident virtuoso to supreme master of classical form, and then beyond that to a mystic exploring strange new worlds of unearthly beauty—a wondrous transfiguration.

It is hardly surpri

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