Steven Isserlis, Olli Mustonen - Shostakovich & Kabalevsky: Cello Sonatas (2019) CD-Rip

Steven Isserlis and Olli Mustonen play Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D Minor – deemed as ‘the most popular cello sonata of the twentieth century’ - alongside two other Russian masterpieces, from pre-revolutionary Prokofiev to Kabalevsky in the Khrushchev era.

Isserlis and Mustonen make a strong case for the Kabalevsky in a performance of grand gestures that proves a real roller coaster ride. Isserlis’s intensity and Mustonen’s pianistic weight suit the piece wonderfully well. In contrast, the Shostakovich seems spacious and ruminative. The shorter pieces are also superbly done.