Sol Gabetta

Cello

Home
Reviews
Features
Discography

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

Following her residencies with Staatskapelle Dresden and Bamberg Symphony last season and her appearance at the Concert de Paris from the Bastille with Orchestre National de France, Sol Gabetta opened this season in concerts with Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev.

Other highlights this season include another set of live performances with Bamberger Symphoniker as well as digitally streamed concerts with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Elim Chan and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic under the baton of Dima Slobendiuk. A respected advocate for lesser-known works, the Argentina-born cellist collaborates with Klaus Mäkelä and Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin later this season illuminating Weinberg’s Cello Concerto. Last season saw the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Wolfgang Rihm, Concerto en Sol, which the composer dedicated to her.

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.

Sol_Gabetta_2017-4435 2018 © Julia Wesely — Sol Gabetta ©Julia Wesely

Chamber music is at the core of Gabetta’s work, visible in her upcoming recitals with Alexei Volodin in Paris and Switzerland, her upcoming tour with her longtime recital partner Bertrand Chamayou through Italy, Germany, France and Spain and her recent appearances with Kristian Bezuidenhout at the opening fest of the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival and Alexander Melnikov at Gstaad Festival. 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 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 also 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.

Up-close | trailer © Michel van der Aa

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

Sol Gabetta - Elgar: Cello Concerto (excerpt) © Sony Music

Sol Gabetta - Vivaldi: Cello Concerto in G minor (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)