MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Russian Music For Cello & Piano

The WarnerNuzova duo - cellist Wendy Warner and pianist Irina Nuzova - makes its recording debut with five late-Romantic Russian works on an album dedicated to the memory of one of Warner's mentors, the illustrious Russian cellist, composer, and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007).

Fittingly, two of the pieces were originally written for Rostropovich: Nikolai Miaskovsky's rarely heard Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 81; and Alfred Schnittke's Baroque-inspired Musica nostalgica, for violoncello and piano.

This is the first American recording of Miaskovsky's mellifluous Sonata No. 2, a work that's rarely performed outside of Russia. It will be a discovery for most listeners.

Alexander Scriabin's Etude Op. 8, No. 11, is a beautiful encore piece brimming with chromatic harmonies; Sergei Prokofiev's Adagio from Ten Pieces from Cinderella, Op. 97b, is based on a duet from his ballet; and Sergei Rachmaninov's Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19, is a riveting four-movement work from the same period as his Second Piano Concerto.