Gautier Capuçon is one of those exceptional interpreters, an ambassador via the world of chamber music “à la française”.

A musical prodigy, he left the Paris Conservatoire Supérieur at 19 years old, with his first prize in his pocket, before garnering multiple international distinctions. His chamber music partners are as numerous as they are talented: his brother Renaud, Hélène Grimaud, Nicholas Angelich, Michel Dalberto, the Ysaye Quartet, to name but a few.

With this concert, he invites us to discover another major interpreter, Gabriela Montero. A Venezuelan pianist who today tours the world with some of the greatest conductors, interpreters and orchestras, she collaborates regularly with Gautier Capuçon. Together they have recorded the sonatas for cello by Rachmaninov and Prokofiev and are currently touring Europe, with the Lille Opera as one of their ports of call.

Inspired by a meeting between the composer with the young prodigy Rostropovitch, Prokofiev’s sonata for cello is cinematic and mysterious, written without emphasis in a language that is quite sober. The Rachmaninov sonata, also restrained but much more dramatic, is one of his most popular works in Russia. Finally, Mendelssohn’s sonata for cello, written in 1843 between Beethoven and Brahms, is a model of Romanticism.

A concert of great musical sensitivity from the international soloists of the new generation.

Programme:
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Sonata for cello and piano in C major op. 119
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Sonata for cello and piano n° 2 in D major op. 58
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Sonata for cello and piano in G minor op. 19.

With
Gautier Capuçon cello
Gabriela Montero piano