Guide to records -- Schnittke's Cello Sonata with Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata and Part's Fratres by Jiri Barta and Marian Lapsansky / Schnittke's Cello Sonata with Kodaly's Cello Sonata by Jan-Erik Gustafson and Heini Karkainen

SCHNITTKE: Cello Sonata with RACHMANINOFF: Cello Sonata PART: Fratres nri Barta; Marian Lapsansky, p Supraphon 2156 (Koch) 73 minutes with KODALY: Cello Sonata SZYMANOWSKI: Cello Sona an-Erik Gustafsson; Heini KBrkinen, p Ondine 827 (Koch) 66 minutes These two discs are held together both by the presence of the Schnittke Sonata and by the fact that they both present young artists in perhaps their first recordings.

The Supraphon disc begins with a beautifully controlled Rachmaninoff. The two players are well matched, each determined to bring out everything he can find in the music.

Voices and balances are remarkably clear. If there is anything lacking, it might be a feeling of the composer's own personality, which is a little...