With the Deux Grandes Sonates pour Le Clavecin ou Piano-Forte / avec un Violoncelle obligé, it is as if Beethoven had created a new genre, in which, unlike what is initially suggested in the title of the printed edition, the cello is established for the ? rst time as a full equal partner with the keyboard instrument. In the consistent equality of the two instruments and in their unprecedented and already near-symphonic quality, the two op.5 sonatas represent a quantum leap in the development of classical chamber music for solo strings and piano. This appears all the more astonishing as Beethoven worked here without any immediate models, and, until the so-called Kreutzer Sonata op.47 in 1802, created nothing more like it in this ? eld. The novel complete equality of the two instruments may be explained to some extent by the circumstances of his concerts at the Berlin Court, where Beethoven wished not only to give the ? rst cellist of the Prussian Court Orchestra, Jean-Louis Duport (the brother of Jean-Pierre), an opportunity for virtuoso self-promotion, but of course to show himself in the best pianistic light as well.

Rainer Zipperling studied viola da gamba and violoncello at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the world-famous institution for baroque music. Finishing his studies in 1980 he joined groups like the Orchestra of the 18th century or La Petite Bande, the Ricercar Consort and Camerata Köln. At the same time he started a career as a soloist, editor and recording engineer, mainly for his own record company FLORA, which he founded together with the famous Belgian gambist Philippe Pierlot and the violin player François Fernandez