The new album from star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason features Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten with his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. This deeply personal recording pays tribute to cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, the towering figure who inspired both composers and Kanneh-Mason himself. Sheku Kanneh-Mason has a long-standing connection and affinity to Rostropovich and Shostakovich.
His 2018 debut album, Inspiration, featured Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto—the piece that secured his victory at the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition and launched his international career. The Concerto No. 2 “is a piece I’ve loved and studied for a long time,” Kanneh-Mason reflects. “It contains some of the most beautiful and sweetest moments in music, as well as some of the darkest and bleakest. To have all of that within one piece is very powerful.” Shostakovich’s Sonata in D minor, showcases the composer’s early style, blending classical form with deeply expressive lyricism.
The album’s third work, Britten’s Cello Sonata, was composed in 1961 as Britten’s testament to his friendship with Rostropovich, initiated through Shostakovich himself. The five-movement work is filled with stark contrasts, from its electrifying pizzicato Scherzo to the profoundly moving Elegia, which Kanneh-Mason describes as capturing “different stages of grief with extraordinary sensitivity.”
