If you're one of those people who find Shostakovich's music not just battleship grey but unacceptably brusque, this is the kind of disc that might just change your mind. While coupling works from opposite ends of the composer's career might seem perverse, in readings like these one is struck afresh by the survival of the lyrical impulse. Michal Kanka's background in orchestral and chamber work engenders a more emollient brand of music-making than that favoured by many exponents (he is the cellist of the Prazak Quartet, among the most distinguished of the current Czech contingent), the downside being that with no ugly or ill-considered sounds, you can't reasonably expect the almost vituperative passion of a Han-Na Chang (EMI, 5/06). Not that Shostakovich's Cello Sonata was ever anything other than one of his sunnier pieces, suggesting perhaps that stylistic reorientation might have been on the cards with or without Stalinist coercion. The Viola Sonata, Shostakovich's last completed score, has the disquieting rapture and gnomic allusivenessof Schnittke yet Kanka seems to insist itneed not sound wholly disconnected. Hereit is played not in the adaptation by Daniil Shafran but in a version respectful of the original text and tessitura whatever the technical challenges this poses for Kanka's own instrument. Tempi are fast, too fast surely for the outer movements so thatthe finale loses some of its particular atmosphere and acquires a slightly alien grace and refinement.

The two minor "rather irritating" pieces are placed at the midway point. As encores they might work well enough in live concert and would be well deserved. Just occasionally Jaromir Klepac's generally discreet contributions sound a little constricted on top but the civility of the recital room is aptly conveyed in a well balanced recording.