Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata, Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Debussy: Cello Sonata. Mstislav Rostropovich, Benjamin Britten. Decca Legends 460 974-2 (1999) barcode 028946097427:
Decca The Originals 475 8239 (2007) 028947582397:
Schumann and Debussy recorded 19-20 July 1961 in Kingsway Hall, London
Schubert recorded 22-27 July 1968 at Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Dating based on Philip Stuart’s Decca discography, 2018 edition
Magisterial recordings from 1968 and 1961 (and the tricky issue of duplications)
Originally published on Amazon.com, 13 September 2006 (Decca Legends) and 3 April 2015 (Decca The Originals), reviews conflated for repost
These are indeed magisterial readings, actually dating from 1961 (Schumann and Debussy) and 1968 (Schubert). The front cover of the 1999 Decca Legends CD reissue (which is what I have) is a little misleading about these dates, but the inside pages are clear and awesomely complete about this info and more on the technical processes, with the welcome bonus of reproductions of the two original LP covers from which these three pieces are culled. The Decca Legends release comes in superb transfers, I don’t know if the 2007 reissue on The Originals has kept the same transfers or further improved them, but I’m happy with what I have and don’t feel the need for a sonic upgrade.
These are ample, highly-charged romantic readings, leisurely in tempo, hightlighting the brooding wistfulness of Schubert’s sonata rather than its youthful geniality, with warm, lyrical, indeed vocal tone and a wealth of nuances from the cellist, magnificent attention to dynamics and articulation from the pianist and superb listening of each other. How can anyone hearing this call the arpeggione sonata a “minor” work eludes me. The same values are applied to the Debussy sonata, resulting in a highly original and convincing interpretation, far removed from the relative dryness that characterized the French tradition of interpretation of that piece (witness Maurice Maréchal and Robert Casadesus’ 1946 recording, reissued by Sony in 2002 in their complete Casadesus collection, 5033842, barcode 5099750338421, link to listing on Discogs.com). Ample, brooding, profound, harrowing, conjuring an enigmatic sound-world, with the second movement cello pizzicatos explosive like a menacing jazz double-bass: at their hands the sonata sounds like a meditation on approaching death (this was indeed one of Debussy’s last compositions) – almost like a composition of Britten, one is tempted to say, and it is hard to imagine it played otherwise after that experience.
Decca’s reissues do pose a tricky problem of coupling and duplication, though. The Debussy and Schumann originally came on an LP with Britten’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, and the Schubert was initially paired with Frank Bridge’s Cello Sonata. 
Now Decca has aptly reissued the Britten in an homogeneous coupling with the composer’s two first solo cello suites, performed again by Rostropovich, an indispensable disc for any Britten and/or Rostropovich admirer – or just music lover (London Records 421 859-2 barcode 028942185920, link will open new tab to listing on Discogs.com). But the Bridge Sonata they have reissued on CD again with the Schubert, as in the original LP (London The Classic Sound 443 575-2 barcode 028944357523, link to my review on Amazon.com pending repost here) – an understandable choice if not very generous in terms of timing, (52′), but one that imposes on the record buyer an irksome duplication with the present disc.
Bridge was Britten’s teacher, so the latter’s advocacy of his music is perhaps understandable, yet the Cello Sonata sounds to me like a broodingly romantic but ultimately impersonal and dull affair, and if forced to chose I would rather be with Schubert-Schumann-Debussy (more favorable in timing too, with 59′) than with Schubert-Bridge. However, if like me you consider that anything recorded by Britten and Rostropovich is of significance, Decca has reissued the Bridge sonata in one of their “British Music Collection”, 470 189-2 barcode 028947018926, paired – not very generously in terms of timing (57′) – with 3 tone poems recorded in 1996 by the Academy of Saint-Martin in the Fields led by Neville Marriner (originally published in a collection called English Seasons, with tone poems by Bax, Delius, Foulds and Grainger), plus a short song by Kathleen Ferrier.
Anyway – yes, this Schubert-Schumann-Debussy is indeed of legendary stature.