Saint-Saens & Lalo: Cello Concertos Sol Gabetta

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921): Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 119:
• 1 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 119: I. Allegro moderato e maestoso - Andante sostenuto 11:57
• 2 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 119: II. Allegro non troppo - Cadenza - Molto allegro 05:48
• Edouard Lalo (1823 - 1893): Cello Concerto in D Minor:
• 3 Lalo: Cello Concerto in D Minor: I. Prélude. Lento - Allegro maestoso 12:42
• 4 Lalo: Cello Concerto in D Minor: II. Intermezzo. Andantino con moto - Allegro presto 06:28
• 5 Lalo: Cello Concerto in D Minor: III. Introduction. Andante - Allegro vivace 07:19
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33:
• 6 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33: I. Allegro non troppo 05:32
• 7 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33: II. Allegretto con moto 04:50
• 8 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33: III. Molto allegro 08:20
• Edouard Lalo: Cello Concerto in D Minor:
• 9 Lalo: Cello Concerto in D Minor: II. Intermezzo. Andantino con moto - Allegro presto (Short Edit) 04:31
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33:
• 10 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33: I. Allegro non troppo (Short Edit) 03:26
• Total Runtime 01:10:53

Info for Saint-Saens & Lalo: Cello Concertos

Cellist Sol Gabetta’s new album Saint-Saëns & Lalo: Cello Concertos will be released on Sony Classical. Recorded with the French orchestra Les Siècles, performing on period instruments, the cellist presents Camille Saint-Saëns’ two Cello Concertos alongside Édouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D minor—three cornerstone works of the Romantic cello repertoire. New single, II. Intermezzo.

Bringing together historically informed orchestral sound with her own distinctive voice, Sol Gabetta explores the contrasting musical worlds of these concertos. Saint-Saëns’ First Concerto and Lalo’s concerto, composed within a span of just a few years, both place a strong emphasis on the orchestra, creating a dynamic dialogue between soloist and ensemble. By contrast, Saint-Saëns’ Second Concerto—written three decades later—emerges as a highly virtuosic and structurally expansive work that demands exceptional technical and expressive range from the soloist.

Known for her expressive intensity and clarity of interpretation, Sol Gabetta shapes each of these works with a strong sense of narrative and colour, highlighting their lyrical qualities while bringing out their distinctive characters. The collaboration with Les Siècles adds a further dimension to the recording, offering a sound palette that reflects the stylistic context of the late 19th century while remaining vivid and immediate.

Sol Gabetta is one of the leading cellists of her generation, internationally acclaimed for her expressive playing and wide-ranging repertoire. She performs regularly with major orchestras and conductors worldwide and is known for her close engagement with both core repertoire and lesser-known works. She appears with leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and London Symphony Orchestra, and is a frequent guest at major international venues and festivals including the Lucerne Festival and New York’s Lincoln Center. Following her recent return to the United States, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, while her international touring activity has also taken her to Asia, including appearances at the BBC Proms Japan. Sol Gabetta performs on a rare Matteo Goffriller cello from 1730.

Sol Gabetta, cello
Les Siecles

Sol Gabetta
The cellist Sol Gabetta was born in Cordoba, Argentina, in 1981 as the daughter of French and Russian parents. She was only ten when she won her first competition in Argentina, and has received many more awards since then: she won the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition and the ARD Competition in Munich, and has been awarded the Natalia Gutman Prize. In 2004 she created an international sensation when, as winner of the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award, she gave her début with the Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev at the Lucerne Festival.

From 1992–94 Sol Gabetta studied with a scholarship at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid, after which she moved to Switzerland to pursue further studies with Ivan Monighetti at the Basel Academy of Music. After further years of study with David Geringas, she took her concert exam in 2006 at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin.

In the last few years, Sol Gabetta has made guest appearances with the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, SWR Stuttgart, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, the Calgary and Seoul Philharmonics, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Het Residentie Orkest, the Trondheim Soloists and the orchestras of Euskadi, Teneriffa and Sevilla. She regularly gives concerts together with the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Gabetta regularly appears at major festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival, in Verbier, at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Bonn Beethoven Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade and the Saratoga Festival. She has also founded her own chamber music festival in Switzerland with the name "Solsberg", where she performs together with her chamber music partners, who include Henri Sigfridsson, Mihaela Ursuleasa, Baiba and Lauma Skride and Patricia Kopatchinkskaya.

Sol Gabetta records exclusively on the RCA label (Sony Music). Her début CD featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns and Ginastera, recorded with the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra under Ari Rasilainen, shot straight to the top of the German classical charts, and brought the coveted Echo Klassik Prize for 2007 as instrumentalist of the year. Her second CD. with Vivaldi concertos recorded together with the Italian ensemble Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, was released in September 2007, and stayed in Germany's classical charts for over six months. 2008 saw the release of not one, but two CD's by Sol Gabetta. One featured a Shostakovich programme: the Cello concerto no.2 with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Marc Albrecht, and the Sonata for cello & piano (with the pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa). The second CD is entitled "Cantabile" and contains opera arias and songs by Offenbach, Bizet, Tchaikovsky and others; on this album, Ms. Gabetta is accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic conducted by Charles Olivieri-Munroe. After it was released, the Shostakovich CD was awarded the coveted French music award Diapason d’Or by the clafssical music magazine Diapason and received the German Echo Klassik award 2009 as concerto recording of the year. In 2011 she received her third Echo Klassik award for her recording of the Elgar cello concerto.

A generous private grant from Hans K. Rahn enables Sol Gabetta to play one of the rare and valuable cellos built by G. B. Guadagnini; the instrument dates from 1759. She has held a teaching post at the Basel Academy of Music since October 2005.

Booklet for Saint-Saens & Lalo: Cello Concertos