[1] The sonata is dedicated to Pablo Casals and was premiered at the École Normale de Musique in Paris on 4 March 1936, by the cellist Diran Alexanian with Enescu at the piano.

[2] The opus number 26, which Enescu assigned to this work, is chronologically appropriate relative to the preceding Third Violin Sonata, Op.

A certain mobility in the transformation of the musical material reaches solutions similar to those of the Classical era, but interpreted and altered according to the composer’s personal taste.

The first theme is expansive, and falls into two large parts, with the piano and cello in a generally heterophonic relationship.

[5] another argues for "a new original structure, superimposing a sonata-form—with exposition, development and recapitulation—to the principles of the fugue",[6] quoted in Bentoiu,[7] while yet another sees it as nearly a textbook example of an ABA scherzo, though including the cyclical return of nearly the entire main theme of the first movement.

[11] The finale is sometimes claimed to be a rondo, at other times a sonata-rondo, whereas Pascal Bentoiu maintains that it "contains all the elements to qualify without hesitation for a sonata form".