Jennifer Kloetzel & Robert Koenig - Beethoven: The Conquering Hero – Complete Works for Cello and Piano (2022) [Hi-Res]

Jennifer Kloetzel’s lifelong journey with Beethoven began early: she was eight years old when her teacher placed the composer’s Second Cello Sonata on her music stand, opening the door to an odyssey of intrigue and, ultimately, obsession with the composer’s music. Since then, rarely has a day passed without Beethoven being a part of Jennifer’s life. She has studied and performed all of the composer’s duos and trios. As founding cellist of the Cypress String Quartet, she spent 20 years rehearsing, performing and recording the String Quartets.

Jennifer now arrives at a career milestone with this recording of Beethoven’s complete works for cello and piano. Views vary as to what comprises Beethoven’s “complete” works for cello and piano. Jennifer’s discerning choice includes the five Sonatas for Cello and Piano, three sets of Variations – based on arias from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus – and the Horn Sonata for which the composer also wrote a cello part.

Jennifer spares no attention to detail across the entire spectrum of this significant recording project. Her performing partner Robert Koenig plays on a 19th century Blüthner concert grand piano. The illuminating liner notes are penned by Beethoven scholar William Meredith who boldly states, “if there were only the five Cello Sonatas of Beethoven left of all his music, these alone would have cemented his place in history”.

The recording was made in the stellar acoustic of Skywalker Sound. The title track, “The Conquering Hero” – from the opening set of Variations from Handel’s "Judas Maccabaeus" – evokes everything for Jennifer about Beethoven’s music, coming from a place of triumph and joy.