Steven Isserlis (cello) & Connie Shih (piano)

Prokofiev: Cello Sonata in C major, op. 119
Kabalevsky: Cello Sonata in Bb major, op. 71
Julius Isserlis: Ballade in A minor (dedicated to Pablo Casals)
Beethoven: Cello Sonata in A major, op. 69

In the first of Steven Isserlis’s two concerts here in 2025 in the lead-up to JdP’s 30th anniversary, the great British cellist is offering a programme of predominantly Russian music, including two powerful and moving cello sonatas originally composed for Rostropovich. Kabalevsky’s Sonata, undeservedly neglected in the West, received its premiere in Moscow in 1963, with composer taking the piano part. It contrasts an electrifying rhythmic energy with passages of veiled lyricism, the second movement even suggesting at times a ghostly ‘dance macabre’. Prokofiev’s Sonata was composed a year after the composer had been denounced at the Zhdanov conference in February 1948, and is characteristically wry and balletic. The concert also contains a work by Steven’s grandfather, Julius Isserlis. A pianist and composer born in Russia, Julius Isserlis responded to the Bolshevic Revolution by emigrating first to Austria and then to Britain.