American cellist Wendy Warner pairs a huge, lustrous tone with diamond-edge virtuosity, apt for a protégé of Russian icon Mstislav Rostropovich. She is ideal in...

American cellist Wendy Warner pairs a huge, lustrous tone with diamond-edge virtuosity, apt for a protégé of Russian icon Mstislav Rostropovich. She is ideal in this set of 20th-century Russian pieces with Moscow-bred pianist Irina Nuzova. The Adagio from Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella" could melt the hardest heart, especially when played with Warner's passion. The Sonata No. 2 by Nikolai Miaskovsky, an elder contemporary of Prokofiev, brims with dark lyricism; the duo make its neglect seem unjust. A Scriabin etude transcribed by cello great Gregor Piatigorsky comes across like an operatic aria, while Alfred Schnittke's "Musica Nostalgica" is a post-modernist dream of old Russia. Rachmaninoff's big Cello Sonata is another experience in melodic melancholy, with Warner's tonal palette all woody brown and smoldering red." -- Bradley Bambarger, Newark Star Ledger