Laura van der Heijden - 1948

The Guardian 80

Van der Heijden/Limonov
(Champs Hill)

Nearly six years after winning the BBC young musician of the year, cellist Laura van der Heijden makes her recording debut with an all-Russian disc that shows her to be, at 20, already a thoughtful artist with much to say. The title refers to the year of Stalin’s damning decree against Soviet composers seen to be writing music for art’s sake rather than the good of the party; Myaskovsky’s defiantly lyrical Cello Sonata was written that year, Prokofiev’s – characterful yet benign – the next. Also included are a little 1885 B minor Prelude by their teacher Lyadov, and the melancholy, lovely 1956 Five Pieces by Yuri Shaporin, whose old-fashioned style had afforded him relative protection in the Stalin years. Van der Heijden and pianist Petr Limonov bring to all a perfectly judged weight, the cello singing out long lines of sustained intensity that get to the heart of this soulful music.