In 1960, Ginastera wrote a piece for cello to be played by the prize winner of a contest organized by the Asociación Wagneriana de Buenos Aires. The contest winner was the young cellist Aurora Natola. Five years later the composer divorced his wife and married the cellist. For her, he wrote among other works, the Cello sonata. This work was composed in 1979. It is rather typical of the late style of Ginastera, dissonant although not too angular, and interspersed with rhythmic and melodic motives distantly related to folkloric origin. The twenty-minute work comprises four movements. The first, Allegro deciso, opens violently with both instruments partaking of an obsessive rhythmic motive. This agitated mood gives way, in the central section, to a static passage characterized by successions of arpeggios, alternating with threats of recurrence by the opening motive, which eventually returns to close the movement. The second movement, Adagio passionato, is an instance of night music. The cello solo ruminates statically for almost two minutes. It is then the turn of the piano solo to do likewise, in which the music reaches great intensity. When the cello returns there is no real collaboration but both instruments give the impression of being alone together. But then the voice of the cello moves to higher pitches ands its meditation turns to long, sustained notes, with the piano accompanying it softly until the music wanes. The third movement, Presto rumoroso, is a fleeting scherzo where the cello produces some eerie effects of portamento. The finale, Allegro con fuoco, is a tumultuous movement where highly stylized and fleeting folkloric motifs can be guessed more than perceived.

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