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“Standing ovations for a chamber music duo, which sparkled with inspiration”

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Photos © Mat Hennek

Hélène and Sol Gabetta concluded their Duo tour across Germany and Switzerland, with their final concert at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Shining reviews celebrate the success of their second tour together.

Hélène now returns to the U.S, performing at the Palm Springs Festival, followed by a series of performances of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the  Los Angeles Philharmonic and James Gaffigan.

The audience in the sold out concert hall of the KKL experienced an unforgettable concert with the cellist Sol Gabetta and the pianist Hélène Grimaud on Saturday night… How much the two exceptional artists listen to each other, how they breathe together, and play in the highest concentration, became particularly clear in the sonata in D major, op. 78, “Regensonate,” by Johannes Brahms”

Luzernerzeitung (KKL, Lucerne 14.01.17) 

It is a challenge to balance this glass bell meditative atmosphere with Schumann’s “Fünf Stücke im Volkston” op. 102: these are grounded in reality, they are language without words, music with vigorous clarity, with fiery passion, with personal sensation, but also full of questions… The two perform naturally, authentically and charismatically.” 

Onetz (Regensberg, Audimax 15.01.17)

“It was precisely the distanced attitude and the superior dramaturgy of the instrumental means that made their interpretation of Johannes Brahms’s “Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Major op. 78” a virtuoso highlight. The balance between the two instruments was excellent, and the pace and dynamics were always striking.” Weser Kurier (Bremen, Die Glocke 23.01.17)

The two musicians have always been distinctive artistic personalities: Grimaud the thoughtful and profound French philosopher at the piano; Sol Gabetta the extroverted spirited-impulsive Argentine cellist. But since the two came together as a chamber music duo, the respective strengths seem to have transferred to the partner, the musicians have mutually artistically nurtured. For Hélène Grimaud has rarely been experienced as solved as in this evening at the Old Opera House. And Sol Gabetta, in her sensitiveness, seemed to sound even deeper… With all romantic expressive insights, Brahms’s G major sonata finally enchanted the audience as a highlight of the evening with its cheerful basic mood, which does not exclude the profound, expressive expression. In the end, there were standing ovations for a chamber music duo, which sparkled with inspiration, with four encores from Chopin, Manuel de Falla and Shostakovich. 

Frankfurter Neue Presse (Frankfurt, Alte Oper 20.01.17)

“Schumann’s “Fünf Stücke im Volkston”…with virtuosity and elegance, an inspiring performance was achieved. Although, of course, everything was carefully rehearsed, the interaction played spontaneously, as developed from the moment.”
RP Online (Dusseldorf, Tonhalle 26.01.17)

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