Navona Records presents SHOSTAKOVICH / RACHMANINOFF: SONATAS FOR CELLO AND PIANO, an album that highlights the musical expression and virtuosity of these renowned works.

Acclaimed award-winning soloist Carmine Miranda and GRAMMY-nominated Nashville Symphony pianist Robert Marler combine their virtuosity with the legendary three-time GRAMMY-nominated producer Alan Shacklock and celebrated mastering engineer Tommy Dorsey (Berlin Philharmonic – Deutsche Grammophon) to deliver the highest quality performances of these works.

Deeply expressive with interplay and virtuosic passages, these two sonatas are held to high regard by pianists and cellists alike. Once turning points in the lives of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, these works have stood the test of time, rewarded with commanding performances by cellist Carmine Miranda and pianist Robert Marler.

REVIEWS:

These two well-known sonatas are treated to handsome performances. The Shostakovich is perhaps a touch too Romantic, with prominent cello slides, yet a wonderful sense of buoyancy. The Rachmaninoff is passionate and delicate as the mood demands, and never indulgent.

-- BBC Music Magazine

The first thing to be said about their version of the Shostakovich D minor (1934) is its pace – this is one of the swiftest accounts I have encountered, full of vim and vigor in the three fast movements, ardent in its lyricism in the Largo. The sonata was written at a time of emotional upheaval in the composer’s personal life, during his brief divorce from his first wife, Nina. Miranda and Marler catch the music’s mercurial, passionate nature as well as any pair have done.

There is a similar thrust to their account of the Rachmaninoff Sonata, too, full of impulsion in the quicker movements. This permits them to relish the lyrical moments (the opening Allegro’s second subject, for instance, and the Andante third movement) without wallowing in what can sometimes seem like an over-ripe style. Praise to Robert Marler’s accompaniment: a fiendishly difficult part that can easily overwhelm the cello but played here with a lightness of touch that would not be amiss in Schubert.

-- Gramophone