Various Composers - French Cello Sonatas, Vol. 4 (Marina Tarasova; Ivan Sokolov)

Information

• Albéric Magnard - Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major, Op. 20
• Louis Vierne - Sonata for Cello and Piano in B Minor, Op. 27

Marina Tarasova, cello

Ivan Sokolov, piano

Date: 2026

Label: Brilliant Classics

_____________________

This release in the French Cello Sonatas series, performed by Marina Tarasova and Ivan Sokolov, presents contrasting early 20th-century works by Albéric Magnard and Louis Vierne, both written in 1910. Magnard’s Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 20 reflects a disciplined, structurally rigorous Romantic tradition influenced by German models and shaped by his training at the Paris Conservatoire and the Schola Cantorum. Vierne’s Cello Sonata in B minor, Op. 27, by contrast, embraces a more harmonically rich, expressive, and post-Wagnerian idiom, marked by dense counterpoint and spiritual intensity. Together, the two works illustrate divergent responses to French musical modernity, balancing formal restraint with expansive lyricism during a period of stylistic transition.

Marina Tarasova is an award-winning Russian cellist and laureate of major international competitions in Prague, Florence, Paris, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Born in Moscow, she was introduced to music through her family and began studying cello at the age of six, later training at the Gnessin School with Alexander Fedorchenko and at the Moscow Conservatory with Natalia Shakhovskaya. Her career as a soloist with the Moscow State Philharmonic has taken her to numerous countries, and she has collaborated with leading conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Mariss Jansons, and Kurt Masur. Her repertoire spans music from the 17th to the 20th century, and her extensive discography has been released on several international and Russian labels.

Ivan Sokolov (b. 1960) is a Russian pianist, composer, and musicologist educated at the Gnessin Music College and the Moscow State Conservatory, where he studied piano with Lev Naumov and composition with Nikolai Sidelnikov. He has been active as a performer, educator, and interpreter of contemporary music, teaching at the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. As a pianist, he has premiered works by major contemporary composers including Alfred Schnittke and Edison Denisov, and has participated in numerous international festivals across Europe and the United States. Sokolov’s creative output spans opera, chamber music, choral works, and approximately 200 romances, reflecting his dual identity as both composer and performer deeply engaged with modern and contemporary musical discourse.