The music of Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) has divided opinion since bursting on to Western new music a quarter-century ago, and these pioneering recordings tellingly convey the impact of first discovery. As the First Piano Sonata (1947) tersely demonstrates, her inimitable idiom is founded on the stratification of material – between loud and soft, stasis and motion – so the piece unfolds as the irreconcilability of opposites; a premise intensified in the Octet (1950), its scoring for two oboes, four violins, piano and timpani setting up a plangent dialogue that culminates precisely at the point where such irreconcilability is confirmed as being inevitable.

The 1950s were bookended by the works featured here. The Violin Sonata (1952) emerges as Ustvolskaya’s most taciturn and equivocal statement; the Grand Duet (1959) as arguably her most encompassing – its interplay of cello and piano exuding an abrasiveness but equally a fervency in the introspective closing section. This has not lacked recordings, with those by Mstislav Rostropovich (Warner, 5/97) and Rohan de Saram (Wergo, 3/12) offering contrasted approaches of comparable intensity, though Olegs Stolpner and Malov prove no less authentic or involving. Close and immediate sound is ideal in context, while the booklet features a biographical overview and personal reminiscence from the late Boris Tishchenko. Those yet to take the plunge into Ustvolskaya should dive head-first into this welcome issue.