Sol Gabetta

Cello

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“Wit, aristocratic poise and elegance; mercurial shifts of mood, intensity and lightness of touch in near-miraculous balance”
(The Glasgow Herald)

Artistic Director: Solsberg Festival
Artistic Director: Festival Presenza LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

Following her recent residencies with Staatskapelle Dresden and Bamberger Symphoniker, Sol Gabetta opens the 2024/25 season with a tour of Europe with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mikko Franck. At the Wiener Konzerthaus, where Gabetta has thrilled audiences time and again, she will be featured in her portrait series across two chamber music evenings and as a soloist, performing concertos by Shostakovich and Saint-Saëns with Wiener Symphoniker and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. After her long-anticipated return to the U.S. for a debut with the New York Philharmonic and performances with The Cleveland Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Klaus Mäkelä, one of her most esteemed musical colleagues, Gabetta will join the New York Philharmonic and Jakub Hrůša in 2025 once again for a guest performance at the Bravo! Vail Festival in Colorado.

Gabetta maintains her longstanding connection to the Philharmonia Orchestra illuminating Weinberg’s Cello Concerto under the direction of Santtu-Matias Rouvali and returns to the Munchner Philharmoniker to collaborate with Lahav Shani after earning wide acclaim for her powerful rendition of Lutosławski’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra last season. Upcoming engagements will see Gabetta reunite with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as with Gewandhaus Orchestra led by Andris Nelsons. Other highlights included appearances with Constantinos Carydis and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in tribute performances to Shostakovich and Schnittke, two eminent composers who stood resilient against repression and remained vocal in their expression, and performances with Gabetta’s fellow ‘inventer’, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja presenting known and unknown works as part of a tour of Germany, as well as appearances with Staatskapelle Berlin and Edward Gardner, performances with Concertgebouw Orchestra and a European tour with Oslo Philharmonic — both led by Klaus Mäkelä. A respected advocate of new compositions for her instrument, Sol Gabetta gave the world premiere performance at Radio France of a newly commissioned Cello Concerto by Francisco Coll, which was created especially for her. Gabetta recently brought this concerto to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, following a previous performance at the BBC Proms Japan, where she shared the stage at Tokyo’s Orchard Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

A sought-after guest artist at leading festivals, Sol Gabetta was Artiste étoile at Lucerne Festival where she appeared with Wiener Philharmoniker and Franz Welser-Möst, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth and the London Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Marin Alsop. She continues drawing inspiration from a wide circle of collaborators and musical encounters at the Solsberg Festival, which flourishes under her committed artistic direction.

Chamber music is at the core of Gabetta’s work, visible in her upcoming trio recitals with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, a tour with her longtime recital partner Bertrand Chamayou through Europe, and recent appearances with Kristian Bezuidenhout and Francesco Piemontesi at Gstaad Festival and at the Schubertiade. In the past, chamber music performances led her to venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall in London, Lucerne, Verbier, Salzburg, Schwetzingen and Rheingau festivals, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Beethovenfest Bonn.

In recognition of her exceptional artistic achievements, vision, and creativity, which have made a significant contribution to Europe’s cultural life, Sol Gabetta was honoured with the European Culture Prize in 2022. She also received the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 2018 where she appeared as soloist with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann. In 2019 she was awarded the first OPUS Klassik Award as Instrumentalist of the Year for her interpretation of Schumann’s Cello Concerto. The ECHO Klassik award saluted her accomplishments biennially between 2007 and 2013, and in 2016. A GRAMMY Award nominee, she also received the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award in 2010 and the Würth-Preis of the Jeunesses Musicales in 2012 as well as commendations at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She continues to build her extensive discography with SONY Classical, the most recent releases being a recording of late Schumann works and a live recording of the cello concertos by Elgar and Martinů with Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle / Krzysztof Urbański. In 2017, Gabetta joined forces with Cecilia Bartoli on an extensive tour throughout Europe showcasing their album Dolce Duello, released on Decca Classics.

Sol Gabetta performs on several Italian master instruments from the early 18^th century, including a cello by Matteo Goffriller from 1730, Venice, provided to her by Atelier Cels Paris, and since 2020, the famous “Bonamy Dobree-Suggia” by Antonio Stradivarius from 1717, on generous loan from the Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger. She has been teaching at the Basel Music Academy since 2005.

HarrisonParrott exclusively represents Sol Gabetta throughout the world except in Switzerland.

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Sol Gabetta - Shostakovich: Cello Sonata (excerpt) © Sony Music

“Gabetta, the glamorous central attraction, made a dazzling showpiece of Haydn’s C major Concerto, complete, thank you, with the composer’s own cadenzas. An Argentine of French and Russian descent, she commands the sort of technique that unravels even the fiercest knot with apparently nonchalant savoir-faire. Still, she never sacrifices sumptuous tone or histrionic persuasion in the process. Official blurbs describe her as “charismatic”; for once, the hyperbole does not seem hyperbolic.”

***** (Financial Times, August 2015)

“Sol Gabetta’s playing immediately cast a spell over the audience. She is at one with her instrument — her interpretation taking on an intensity of sound that informs the musical text. Her virtuosity sounds somehow playful and dexterous at the same time.”

(Trierischer Volksfreund, January 2013)

“[Sol Gabetta is] an exquisite soloist who plays with delicacy and sweetness.”

(La Verdad Murcia, January 2013)

“The night… belonged to the amazing Sol Gabetta, who appeared to possess, along with her flawless technique, an inexhaustible array of characterizations to lavish on, or find in, Tchaikovsky’s variations. Wit, aristocratic poise and elegance; mercurial shifts of mood, intensity and lightness of touch in near-miraculous balance; broad brush strokes and finely-drawn lines.”

(The Glasgow Herald, May 2009)

“Gabetta had the full measure of this work, its bravura elements delivered with complete assurance and breathtaking élan. She was equally good in the softer passages, the slow movement as intimate and personal as one could wish.”

(The Calgary Herald, March 2009)