When Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his first two sonatas for piano and violoncello (op. 5) in 1796, he was entering new compositional territory. Violin sonatas...

When Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his first two sonatas for piano and violoncello (op. 5) in 1796, he was entering new compositional territory. Violin sonatas already existed; Mozart had already written several, but the cello had not yet established itself as a solo instrument equal to the violin in chamber music. During this period, i.e. the second half of the 1790s, another composer emerged into the public sphere who was also on a par with Beethoven, if only as a pianist.