Two conservative but appealing cello sonatas by a Russian composer now emerging from the shadows

KASHPEROVA Cello Sonatas, op 1 • Janne Fredens (vc); Søren Rastogi (pn) • OUR 8.226946 (61:24)

So far, the 2020s have been a good decade for Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940). From the Capriccio label, we have just had a new recording of her piano concerto and her symphony, reviewed with some reservations a few issues back by Jerry Dubins. Now here come her two cello sonatas, which were newly published in 2021 by Boosey & Hawkes (who also published the two aforementioned works). This Resurgence (the omnibus title of this release) is due in large part to the efforts of British musicologist Graham Griffiths, who has devoted decades toward uncovering her work and her life. Kashperova (the accent is on the second syllable) was a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and had a wide-ranging international career as a pianist. She enjoyed success as a pianist and as a composer until she fell off the radar around 1920, following her marriage to a Bolshevik revolutionary who also was her student. (This could be an interesting biopic!) Another one of her students, back in 1899, was Igor Stravinsky, who worked with her for two years. Stravinsky had little good to say about her later on (he called her a “blockhead”) but that's Stravinsky for you.
The two cello sonatas date from 1895 and 1896, shortly after her graduation from Anton Rubinstein's piano class. For both of them, their dedicatee was cellist Alexander Verzhbilovitch, who taught at the Conservatory. (His pupils included Leopold Rostropovich, Mstislav's father, and he also was a close friend of Tchaikovsky. According to Rimsky-Korsakov's memoirs, it was Verzhbilovitch who passionately kissed the dead Tchaikovsky's face, following the latter's death from cholera.)

Stravinsky also called his ex-teacher “antiquated.” I don't know if he was referring to her pianistic methods or pedagogy, but if he was referring to her compositions, he was not entirely wrong, although I would choose a nicer word, such as “old-fashioned.” This was not exactly cutting-edge music in 1896. It is good to remember that Kashperova was born in the same year as Scriabin, and that other works composed in 1896 include Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Mahler's Third Symphony. In his aforementioned review, Dubins compared and contrasted Kashperova with Rachmaninoff. I don't think there's much likelihood that you would confuse the two. There's much more Tchaikovsky here than Rachmaninoff, especially in the First Sonata. For better or worse, Kashperova's music stays within the four walls of the drawing room or the salon, and is in no danger of breaking out. That does not mean that her music is no good. It is, in fact, quite good, once you accept its limitations. Both sonatas have several attractive themes, even if they are not of the sort that stays with you long after the music is done. And both works are well put together, suggesting that Kashperova was both a attentive and diligent student, and one not likely to break the rules. The First Sonata is more genteel; the Second more passionate. I prefer the Second. It has a whirling Scherzo movement, and a dignified Finale in which the demons of the earlier movements are put to rest.

Janne Fredens is one of Denmark's most prominent chamber musicians, and she plays these works with skill and decorum. She seems like a cellist who would never coarsen her tone in order to make an interpretive point. Given Kashperova's background as a pianist, it is not surprising that the piano parts to these sonatas do more than simply accompany the cellist, and Søren Rastogi is up to the challenge. If anything, the piano writing tends to be more showy that Kashperova's writing for the cello, and this is not a problem for Rastogi. The recording was made in a small performance space in Aarhus, and there is just enough resonance to keep the engineering from being too dry.

No masterpieces, then, but this music does not deserve to have been silent for so long, so thank you Professor Griffths, and thank you OUR Recordings! Raymond Tuttle