• Beethoven’s music for cello and piano is not a rarity, but four new recordings in the past year alone is surely an exception. First came veteran cellist Yo Yo Ma, giving seasoned poetry to the five sonatas with the pianist Emanuel Ax (Sony) 40 years after the duo’s first recording. Next (on Avie) was Jennifer Kloetzel, one-time cellist of the Cypress Quartet, with Robert Koenig on a period Blüthner piano: admirably inquisitive and vigorous in the complete cello works, which include three sets of variations and the horn sonata, Op 17, that Beethoven arranged for cello.
