Cello music flourished in Russia in the 19th century. Tchaikovsky was central to this profusion of composition, writing the celebrated Variations on a Rococo Theme, music of Mozartian charm, heard here in the composer’s version for cello and piano. Karl Davïdov, who Tchaikovsky called ‘the tsar of all cellists’, contributed a melodious, lyrically inventive and virtuosic Fantasy on Russian Songs. Arensky’s graceful character sketches and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Serenade are suffused with Romanticism, while the lusty Fantasy on Gipsy Songs by Konstantin Liadov (father of the more famous Anatoly) is the earliest of these pieces and the least known.

A collection of works for cello and orchestra by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov was released in January 2019 (8573860) featuring the renowned cellist Li-Wei Qin. Of it The Strad commented: ‘This is the kind of programming that Naxos excels at… Qin, has a disarming simplicity and elegance that prove gently beguiling…’

Dmitrii Khrychev is a prominent chamber and orchestral musician and soloist. He has performed as a soloist under Yuri Temirkanov, Nikolay Alekseev, Krzysztof Penderecki and Leo Kremer, among others. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with many Russian composers including Sergey Slonimsky, Boris Tischenko, Yuri Falik, Yuri Kozulin and Leonid Rezetdinov, giving several world premieres.