The projected integral recording of Beethoven's music for cello and piano, by Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax, has still not progressed beyond the first two instalments, and these are now made available on two CDs [see ''For the Record'', October, page 456—Ed.]. The first contains the two early Op. 5 Sonatas, of 1796, in which the accent is mainly on brilliance and bravura (which Ma and Ax supply abundantly); the second contains what are perhaps the best of the five sonatas: the magnificent, expansive A major of 1807-08, and the more concentrated and intellectual D major of 1815. The LPs, which I reviewed in 1982 and 1984 respectively, presented these masterly performances with exceptionally vivid sound; the CD versions are, incredibly, even more lifelike.'