Fanfare
*****
This release is a prime candidate for next year’s Want List. Enthusiastically recommended.

KASHPEROVA Cello Sonatas: No. 1 in G, op. 1/1; No. 2 in e, op. 1/2.  Janne Fredens, vc. Søren Rastogi, pn.  OUR Recordings 8.226946 (61:24)
This disc was an absolute delight and, as the Russian composer Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940) was new to me, a revelation. A student of Anton Rubinstein (for piano) and Nicolai Soloviev (for composition) at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Kashperova’s biggest claim to fame – which I hope will eventually be eclipsed by her compositional stature after more of her music is performed, recorded, and heard – is that she was Igor Stravinsky’s piano teacher. (Given the less-than idiomatic nature of his piano writing, in sharp contrast to his orchestral brilliance after studies with Rimsky-Korsakoff, one wonders whether he took to his piano lessons).
Primarily a concert pianist, Kashperova toured various European cities (including London and Berlin), and she also performed chamber music as a member of a trio celebrated violinist Leopold Auer and cellist Alexander Verzhbilovich, the dedicatee of the first cello sonata. (Verzhbilovich, among his other attainments, was a celebrated cello teacher and numbered among his students Leopold Rostropovich, Mstislav’s father).
These two cello sonatas, catalogued as the composer’s Opus 1, are extended, at turns lyrical and powerful, coherent, four-movement essays in late 19th century romanticism. The piano part is amply virtuosic and the cello writing is assured and idiomatic, so that these early works create the impression that the composer, like Athena of old, emerged fully-formed from the collective consciousnesses of her teachers and mentors (or perhaps, per Jung, the collective unconscious). Clearly Kashperova internalized much of what she learned from the likes of Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms.
The performances are all that one could ask for. Jointly serving as music directors of the Odsherred Chamber Music Festival, Janne Fredens and Søren Rastogi have already been lauded by multiple Fanfare colleagues in 47:4 for their earlier album, Upheaval, featuring music of other women composers. The performances here are at that same high level. Moreover, although by now it almost doesn’t need mentioning since we’ve become accustomed to it, OUR Recordings has lavished its usual superlative recording, editing, mastering, and production values on this disc. But indeed it is worth mentioning, because consistent observance of such high standards has not always been the norm for record companies.
With well-developed musical ideas and cello and piano equal partners, these disc is an eminently satisfying, indeed captivating, musical experience. Discoveries such as these sonatas are the reward that makes long hours of listening and the ill-compensated work of classical music criticism worthwhile. Having just submitted my Want List for the last issue, this release is a prime candidate for next year’s. Enthusiastically recommended. Keith R. Fisher, 12.10.26