In recent years Miaskovsky has suffered something of a decline in the Soviet Union. Textbooks still honour him as an important influence on the development of Soviet music, a great teacher and so on, but performances and recordings of his music have become increasingly rare. Whether this new CD issue (apparently the first of a series) is a sing of re-awakened interest—a kind of Russian counterpart to the Bax phenomenon in England—isn't easy to tell, but obviously the spirit of the age is favourable to the rediscovery of very late romantic orchestral composers, as is demonstrated by the case of Bax, or Respighi, or even Eduard Tubin.

After a first album as part of the harmonia nova collection, which resulted in a well-deserved Victoire de la Musique Classique (category New Instrumental Soloist), Bruno Philippe continues his path on the harmonia mundi label. This programme devoted to Rachmaninoff and the unfairly neglected Myaskovsky is a genuine technical and artistic challenge, which the young cellist has taken up in total harmony with his long term musical partner Jérôme Ducros. Be swept away by the swirling passions of these works, among the most romantic in Russian musical literature.

Nikolay Myaskovsky was one of the most prolific and influential composers in 20th-Century Russian musical life. These two works come from the beginning and end of his distinguished career: the warmly expressive First Cello Sonata recalling the style of Rachmaninov, and the equally romantic Second Cello Sonata revealing the subtle influence of folk music typical of Myaskovsky's later years. Alexander Glazunov both absorbed and continued the great Romantic lineage with his poignant Chant du Ménestrel and the Iberian evocations for the Sérénade espagnole from Two Pieces.