Brahms: The Cello Sonatas

More than 20 years separate Brahms’ two cello sonatas. The First, started while the composer was still in his twenties, opens in a mood of deep Romantic yearning, before a lyrical second movement and a furious fugal finale that pits cello against piano in ever more intricate counterpoint. The Second Sonata could hardly be more different—its forthright opening movement and understated Adagio are a good deal more emotionally complex. That Brahms himself was a cellist in his youth as well as a supreme pianist explains the equal roles enjoyed by both instruments. The great Russian master cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and Austrian American pianist Rudolf Serkin prove a formidable duo in their Grammy Award-winning recording of these two works, their beautifully restrained interpretations balancing Brahms’ complex emotional worlds and allowing the music to speak for itself.