The famous Russian pianist-composer, who became an American citizen in 1958, was as well known in 1930s Paris as Stravinsky and heir to a number of Slav cultures in Europe and Asia. In the course of long visits, he also analyzed the music of the Far East (China, Japan, Korea...), endeavouring to find a common language in the various folklores he discovered. A myriad of one-page blochki ('little fleas') as well as six piano concertos, four symphonies, three operas, cantatas, choruses, songs, etc. offer a surprising literature, e.g., for cello and keyboard, a vivid, virtuosic repertoire, authenticated by its folk sources.

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First juxtaposition of sonatas written by French organists at the end of 19th century whereas the Wagnerian chromaticism (Tristan ?) started to cause rejection or revival, acknowledged or concealed, by these old Masters in the finishing romantic era. The least reached is obviously Saint-Saëns with his heroic and purified classicism. Boëllmann, too forgotten, let clearly perceive his attraction. Franck adapted it to his imposing and passionate manner.

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An amateur cellist, the composer of Prince Igor was the only one of the Group of Five to have written some ten chamber works for his personal pleasure in keeping with the laws of Germanic rhetoric - to Balakirev's great displeasure. One of them is a pure masterpiece: his Quartet in D, featuring an irresistible Nocturne, which has been played round the world in various arrangements.

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The traditional pairing of the two Cello Sonatas that Brahms wrote more than 20 years apart. One pays enthusiastic homage to the Bach of The Art of Fugue, the other, energetic and more introverted, maintains an intimate unity of tone, the height of affetuoso and passionato

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The last of Chopin’s four sonatas – the first three being for solo piano – has become an essential work in the repertoire of… cellists, taking its place alongside the Beethoven models and the more-immediately lyrical scores of Mendelssohn. Grieg, in the central Andante molto tranquillo of his own Sonata, borrowed from the portrait of Sigurd Jorsalfar (Sigurd the Crusader), incidental music which, owing to its charm and noble bearing, deserves to be as well known as some parts of Peer Gynt. A triptych in chromatic harmonisations as free as they are appealing.

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