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.