suppose you're a kid of, say, 13, who dreams of acting, and John Gielgud suddenly swoops down and casts you as Lady Macbeth. That must be what Korean-born Han-Na Chang felt like when Mstislav Rostropovich, the grand old Russian bear of the cello, asked her to perform her debut recording under his direction. On such lofty schemes are lofty expectations built, and Rostropovich has doffed his cap to the right prodigy: Chang plays with the consummate grace of a master.

Her gift well exceeds her experience. Chang moved to New York at age 10 to study at the Juilliard School with Aldo Parisot. A year later she won first prize at the Rostropovich Competition in Paris. She's been tutored by the great Rostropovich ever since. Rostropovich is cautious about pushing her, however, limiting her to four concerts a month.

His guidance is paying off. Just listen to Chang's winning way with the fifth Rococo Variation by Tchaikovsky (track #5 at 0:26-0:36); her fleetly accurate scales will send thousands of aspiring cellists back to their practice rooms. Chang's intonation is dead-center, and her harmonics are wonders of sound — they seem to fly off the strings of their own volition.

But what leaps out at you even beyond her technical gift is Chang's interpretive prowess. Kids couldn't play Lady Macbeth, you might say, but Chang sure has that character's depth and range as she works her way through this debut. As Rostropovich himself says of her, "I did not play as well as her at that age. The maturity and emotion are extraordinary. If you closed your eyes you would imagine that you were listening to a 25-year-old. I've never heard anything like it."

Among her many other virtues, she knows how to play something softly and then repeat it with even greater intensity at a softer volume (track #10, 1:48-1:58), a feat nearly as impressive as her knack for flawless double-stops (track #10, 2:29-2:46). And her sense of style is as sure as her bow arm: her rich, melancholic Fauré sounds as different from her robust Tchaikovsky tone as her playful Saint-Saens does compared to her stately Bruch. Chang is that rarity among musicians of any age: She's not as interested in showing off as she is in making music.

— Tim Riley

Tim Riley is a music commentator for Public Radio International's "The World."