Beethoven’s works for cello and piano were written between 1796 and 1815. He effectively created the sonata for cello, with an independent piano part, in his Op.5, intended for Jean-Louis Duport and dedicated to Frederick William II of Prussia. Like the delightful variations on themes by Handel and Mozart, they represent his first-period style, as Op.69 typifies the second. The two sublime Sonatas Op.102, for their part, already herald the unprecedented stylistic freedom of the composer’s final decade.