Braids Elena Ballario & Sergio Patria

• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849): Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65:
• 1 Chopin: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65: I. Allegro moderato 15:43
• 2 Chopin: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65: II. Scherzo - Allegro con brio 04:48
• 3 Chopin: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65: III. Largo 03:24
• 4 Chopin: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65: IV. Finale - Allegro 06:20
• Léon Boëllmann (1862 - 1897): Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 40:
• 5 Boëllmann: Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 40: I. Maestoso. Allegro con fuoco 10:37
• 6 Boëllmann: Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 40: II. Andante 08:35
• 7 Boëllmann: Cello Sonata in A Minor, Op. 40: III. Allegro molto 06:34
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135:
• 8 Debussy: Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135: I. Prologue - Lent. Sostenuto e molto risoluto 04:35
• 9 Debussy: Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135: II. Sérénade - Modérément animé 03:33
• 10 Debussy: Cello Sonata in D Minor, L. 135: III. Finale - Animé. Léger et nerveux 03:48
• Total Runtime 01:07:57

Info for Braids

Cellist Sergio Patria and pianist Elena Ballario presentBraids, an album of French music for cello and piano that represents the interwoven strands of their professional and personal partnership, as well as the intricate threads between the composers and works they have chosen, from the Romanticism of Chopin to Boellmann's impressionistic sonata and Debussy's forward-looking work, written right at the end of his life.

The figure of Auguste Franchomme links Chopin and Boellmann; this cellist was Chopin's great friend and an inspiration for his cello writing, which represents a rare foray into repertoire in which the piano is not the main focus - although the work is entitled 'Sonata for Piano and Cello' in that order. Franchomme's legacy is also palpable in the Sonate pour Piano et Violoncelle, Op. 40 by Leon Boellmann, who dedicated the work to cellist and teacher Jules Delsart, one of Franchomme's pupils. Boellmann's beautiful, virtuosic music also shows, with its remarkable, almost Wagnerian harmonic fluidity, the influence of the great French organist Cesar Franck, who was inspired by Wagner and whose Sonata for Violin was arranged for cello by Delsart. Such is the complex and fascinating network of connections braided together in this programme. As for Debussy, the Cello Sonata is one of his last works, revealing a composer at once troubled by war and illness, and yet full of invention and imagination.

These works are of great significance to Sergio Patria and Elena Ballario, who have recorded with Odradek, along with violinist Franco Mezzena, the Schubert Trios Opp. 99 and 100, and an album of music by Franck, Debussy and Schmitt, which earned a four-star review in BBC Music Magazine.

Elena Ballario, violoncello
Sergio Patria, piano

Elena Ballario
born in Biella, studied piano, violin and composition before perfecting her piano studies with Maria Golia, Malcolm Frager and Pier Narciso Masi. She has won national and international piano competitions and scholarships. A tenured professor since 1995, she has been teaching at the Conservatory of Turin since 2007. She began her concert career in 1980 as a recitalist and soloist with orchestra; her interest in chamber music has since allowed her to be part of numerous ensembles and to acquire a vast chamber repertoire. Her concert activity has seen her perform across Europe in prestigious concert halls during important concert seasons. Since 1988 she has played in a duo with the cellist Sergio Patria, with whom she has extended this formation to a trio with Franco Mezzena. Since 2000, in parallel to her concert career, Elena Ballario has been composing for various instrumental and vocal groups, transcribing orchestral and chamber works from difffferent periods, creating monographic programmes dedicated to Rossini, Verdi, operetta, fables in music, and opera, performed by the Nuovo Insieme Strumentale Italiano, of which she is the pianist. After these early transcriptions she has produced original works for piano solo, chamber ensembles and string orchestra. She composed original music to the fable Pinocchio, creating a musical comedy widely performed by the ensemble with Lorenzo Branchetti as narrator. The Nuovo Insieme Strumentale Italiano has recorded three albums of her original works and transcriptions. Her compositions have been included in the repertoire of numerous soloists and ensembles, and are performed regularly in Italy and abroad. Also active as a writer of published theoretical texts, she produced the textbook Scales and Arpeggios with Theoretical Introduction, now used in music conservatoires. She has recently undertaken a project to re-evaluate the unpublished repertoire of the Piedmontese composer Carlo Rossaro, kept in the Library of the Conservatory of Turin, resulting in a double CD for the Tactus label that has received glowing reviews in numerous music magazines. In addition to the Odradek Records release of Schubert’s Piano Trios with the Mezzena/Patria/Ballario Trio, she has recorded the complete Trios of Wolf- Ferrari for Brilliant Classics, and Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoffff Trios for the Dynamic label.

This album contains no booklet.