Upheaval

Despite the qualities of both the composers and the pieces, it is a little-known repertoire that is highlighted here in highly successful interpretations. The husband and wife artist couple Janne Fredens and Søren Rastogi devote their full attention to this recording. (...) With a young cello and a Bechstein Concert Grand, they use instruments that allow intense moments of sound, but above all subtleties of design in the expressive passages. Many nuances in the interpretations make these recordings a very attractive compilation. 

Together with the image-rich but also textually informative booklet and the not too voluminous, otherwise well-coordinated sound technology, this is a recommendable album that enables discoveries and presents the two sonatas together for the first time.

The performance by Janne Fredens and Søren Rastogi, darkly coloured and assertive in spirit, serves as a revealing alternative to the more brightly coloured and light-fingered recording by Christian Poltéra and Oliver Triendl. Both make stronger impressions than does the unsteady reading by Israel Fausto and Carmen Martínez Pierret. The Cello Sonata by Pejačević’s contemporary Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952) makes an ideal complement. (...) the short pieces by Lili and Nadia Boulanger seem like chestnuts – but they’re exquisite chestnuts, compellingly presented. The engineering, especially as heard on the SACD surround tracks, is first-rate. Strongly recommended.