Heinrich Schiff & Paul Gulda: Works by Schnittke, Martinů & Piazzolla

For all his mastery in the classics of the cello repertoire, the late Heinrich Schiff always maintained a lively and intensely serious interest in contemporary and 20th-century music. Astor Piazzolla and Alfred Schnittke were both still alive in the summer of 1988 when Schiff came together with the brilliant young Austrian pianist Paul Gulda at the Munich Klaviersommer – the freewheeling, cross-genre festival founded by Paul's irrepressible (and controversial) father Friedrich. But there's no controversy here: just intelligent, perceptive playing of two still-new modern classics, with Martinů's exuberant Variations on a Theme by Rossini as a spirited encore.