Alban Gerhardt, Steven Osborne - Shostakovich & Schnittke: Cello Sonatas

Hyperion�s record of the month for June is an intense and enthralling musical journey of powerful Russian twentieth-century music performed by the charismatic cellist, Alban Gerhardt and highly acclaimed pianist Steven Osborne.Shostakovich�s Cello Sonata Op 40 received its premiere in December 1934, in a period of great personal turmoil. Its return to a much more conservative style did not fade his image�due to the impact of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtensk�as the Soviet Union�s enfant terrible which had created a difficult situation against a furious Stalin and the regime. The impact of censorship on Shostakovich�s musical progress resulted in works with deeply personal and powerful statements which can be heard on this disc.His Eleven pieces for cello and piano�eight of which are recorded here�are a collection of arrangements of Shostakovich�s ballet and film compositions, the best known being the Nocturne from the film The Gadfly.Also on this disc is Alfred Schnittke�s First Cello Sonata, in which he takes the basic major/minor third and the perfect cadence and subjects them to extreme magnification resulting in an exploration of harmony, atmosphere, drama and anguished searching.