With his pianist mother, Oxana, Dmitry Yablonski left the USSR in 1977 when he was 15. Besides their solo work, he is now Principal Cellist of Barcelona's Orquesta de la Cuidad and she teaches at New York's Juilliard School. By chance the last contenders in these sonatas, Karine Georgian and Pavel Gililov, were also Russian emigres. And what immediately strikes you when comparing the two versions is the difference in actual sound.
The newcomers' unspecified Belgian recording venue is dryer than the warmly reverberant Maltings at Snape. In compensation for less tonal bloom there is a more distanced clarity—and certainly less danger of Brahms's sumptuous keyboard textures engulfing the cello, as sometimes happened in the F major Sonata at Snape. Oxana Yablonskaya's own ear for balance is all the more praiseworthy since I had the impression that she is the more positive music personality of this duo. Dmitry emerges here as a pleasant-toned, disciplined musician who despite his obvious respect for the text doesn't yet play with his mother's intensity of conviction. Even a longer and more urgently sustained sense of direction in his phrasing would help. In its comparatively objective way this coupling is worth every penny of its super-bargain price. But the con amore approach of Georgian and Gililov (who incidentally include a cello arrangement of the G major Violin Sonata on their pair of medium-price discs) is more likely to make you fall in love with this music all over again.'