Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata For Cello And Piano, op. 40 / Franz Schubert: Sonata In A Minor For Cello And Piano ("Arpeggione") - Daniil Shafran (vc), Lydia Pecherskaya (p). There would seem to be no area in which one can find fault with this release. Daniel Shafran, the Russian cellist, is in absolutely superb form, stylistically and expressively. In both recorded works, he has captured that elusive thing - the precisely right gesture for the music at hand. It is good, moreover, to hear the Shostakovich so well played. The cello sonata is one of this composer's most successful chamber works-indeed, one of the most consistently successful works in his catalog. The recording quality is first-rate - Stereo Review Apparently Daniel Shafran and Lydia Pecherskaya scored a big success with Schubert at Carnegie Hall recital. On this record Shafran emerges as a very able player ... I was glad to find that Shafran is not quite as rhythmically wayward in the first movement ... and I thought his most ingratiating playing comes in the finale, which ahs an irresistable rhythmic lilt.—Gramophone
