Cello Sonata No. 5 in D Major

After the spiritually exalted fun and games of Op. 102 No. 1, Beethoven’s last cello sonata begins with what seems like a return to middle-period form: a muscular, assertive opening theme for piano, interrupted and steered in new, ardent lyrical directions by the cello. But after this exciting, richly contrasted first movement comes one of Beethoven’s most spiritually probing slow movements, beginning in deep grief, with both instruments singing numbly and hesitantly in their dark lower registers. There are a few anguished outbursts, but the music is prevailingly hushed, and eventually the movement seems to be coming to an exhausted, resigned close. Then, in one of Beethoven’s most magical transitions, a flicker of pale light in the cello’s final phrases is followed by two tentative rising figures on cello and piano, which then take off into an “Allegro” fugue. It is a pattern that recurs several times in Beethoven’s late works: a dark night of the soul is followed by a joyous return to life.