Cellist Leonard Elschenbroich puts himself right at the heart of this recording: he sees his relationship with the music of Alfred Schnittke – the Soviet composer of German Jewish heritage – as a personal identity quest by way of “journeying from my longing for Russian towards my homecoming to German music”. The disc even culminates in a short piece called Shards of Alfred Schnittke, which Elschenbroich wrote in his early 20s as “a sort of composed interpretation”. The playing is introspective and intense, with plenty moody self-reflection in the dark ebbs and whispered nostalgia of the First Cello Sonata. The Suite in the Old Style is Schnittke’s reworking of his film music from the excellently named Sport, Sport, Sport and Adventures of a Dentist; here, Elschenbroich’s seriousness misses the caustic wit in the music, but he makes up for it with a cello sound that gleams. Petr Limonov provides immaculately chiselled piano counterparts throughout.
