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 Radio France, Staatskapelle Dresden and Bamberg Symphony, Sol Gabetta opens the 2022/23 season with the second edition of the BBC Proms Japan 2022 sharing the stage of Tokyo’s Orchard Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Dalia Stasevska.

Other highlights this season include appareances with Staatskapelle Berlin and Edward Gardner, Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrusa, performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and a European tour with Oslo Philharmonic — both led by Klaus Mäkelä, a major tour with Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi and performances with Gabetta’s fellow ‘inventer’, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja presenting known and unknown works as part of a duo tour. A respected advocate of new compositions for her instrument, Sol Gabetta will give the world premiere performance at Radio France of a newly commissioned Cello Concerto by Francisco Coll which was created specially for her. Finally, Sol Gabetta will join forces with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Orchestre de Paris.

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 Francois- 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 commited artistic direction.

Chamber music is at the core of Gabetta’s work, visible in her upcoming trio recitals with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov in Germany and Austria, her upcoming tour with her longtime recital partner Bertrand Chamayou through Italy, France and Austria, and 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, Sol Gabetta was honoured with the European Culture Prize at the start of this season performing together with Paavo Järvi and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich as part of a gala concert. The prize is being awarded since 2012 to individuals and institutions with vision and creativity who have made a valuable contribution to the cultural life in Europe. 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 accomplishment 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 the 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)