Our August Recording of the Month is rather unusual. American cellist Zlatomir Fung has released a disc of 19th-century operatic fantasies, virtuoso showcases that were once a mainstay of Parisian salons (Signum SIGCD882).

Fung – who, in 2019, became the youngest-ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition’s cello category – has unearthed a treasure trove, bookended by two new pieces appearing on disc for the first time. The first of these is Fung’s own fantasy on Janáček’s Jenůfa – a bold choice that contrasts the opera’s gloomy moods and redeeming light. “It proves a thoroughly apt approach,” writes Michael Quinn. “Fung the cellist is a fine interrogator of Fung the arranger with Richard Fu’s piano no less intensely involved and revealing.”

Other highlights include a stellar take on Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment by Adrien-François Servais (“the Paganini of the cello”), an emotional exploration of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell by François George-Hainl, and arrangements of Walter’s Prize Song from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Lensky’s aria from Eugene Onegin.

This year’s anniversary crop of Shostakovich recordings continues apace with outstanding accounts of the String Quartets