Arpeggione

Description

Gautier Capuçon, after 3 years of absence from recording as a principal soloist, returns today with a breathtaking program, supported on piano by Frank Braley. He reprises the legendary program recorded by Mstislav Rostropovich and Benjamin Britten, augmented by the Sonata by the same Britten. The Arpeggione Sonata is the centerpiece; this masterpiece of emotion is contemporary with "Death and the Maiden" and was composed while the musician was already suffering from an advanced stage of syphilis. It is probably a commission from a friend, a confirmed guitarist, who became passionate about this newly created 6-string instrument. Nowadays, the arpeggione is played by a cello, which is the case with Gautier who gives a fully inhabited reading of it. The pieces by Schumann, masterpieces of great lyricism, will be a discovery for many. Debussy's Sonata, one of his last works, is a blend of sarcastic humor and melancholic poetry. Britten's Sonata was conceived in 1960, during a stay in Greece by Britten, and was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich whose playing inspired the British composer. A recording that will be historic.