Ophélie Gaillard / Pulcinella Orchestra VIVALDI I Colori dell' Ombra

                                                          I COLORI DELL' OMBRA

Ophélie Gaillard / Sandrine Piau / Pulcinella Orchestra BOCCHERINI

This season 18/19 Ophélie Gaillard will be performing as a soloist with the Filharmonia Slovenska under the direction of James Judd, with the National Orchestra of Brittany conducted by Marc Feldman and with her ensemble, the Pulcinella Orchestra. Her repertoire includes Boccherini’s concertos, CPE Bach, Vivaldi, Schumann, Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Roccoco Theme, and Nino Rota’s transcriptions.

She can be heard in Paris (Radio-France auditorium, the cycle of the Army Museum) and in the French provinces as well as abroad (tours in Italy, Singapore, Germany).

In the spring of 2019 a double monographic record will be released, dedicated to Luigi Boccherini with the Pulcinella Orchestra and Sandrine Piau, published by the Aparté label and distributed by HM.

Ophélie Gaillard will be a member of the jury of the prestigious competition of the ARD of Munich and will give masterclasses at the French American school of Fontainebleau, in Munich, during the Musicalp summer academy in Tignes, as well as at the High School of Music of Geneva.

After a first album about Boccherini, that was acclaimed by the press in 2007 (awarded with the Choc du Monde de la Musique, distinctions in Strad and BBC Magazine), Ophélie Gaillard joins Sandrine Piau and the Pulcinella Orchestra again in a double album that is a tribute to the brilliant Tuscan cellist.

Ophélie Gaillard RICHARD STRAUSS Don Quixote & Cello Works

From Romance to tone poem, the cellist Ophélie Gaillard invites to an imaginary journey, both heroic and delicate, in the post-Romantic world of Richard Strauss.

Heart of the disc, the symphonic poem Don Quixote transforms the instruments into characters who play the epic adventures of Cervantes’ hero. Thus, Don Quixote, played by the cello, talks with Sancho Panza (the viola) or Dulcinea (the violin) in a luxuriant orchestral fresco, tender and sensual, where Strauss’ genius for melody unfolds with a touch of humour. 

His exquisite expressiveness shines through the most intimate pieces that complete this program. Ophélie Gaillard’s warm lyricism agrees with the piano in the Romance and the Sonata in F major, or with the voice in the smooth accents of Morgen. As an ideal companion, the cellist’s enchanting bow leads to an irresistible music.

Anna Kasyan HÄNDEL Shades of Love

Anna Kasyan is one of the most promising French sopranos of her generation. She has established herself in a wide repertoire of opera and sacred music to chamber music, from baroque to contemporary. 

Recent highlights include Neda/Pagliacci and Lola/Cavaleria Rusticana in Toulon in October 2016, Despina/Cosi fan Tutte in Toulon in November 2015, Susanna/Le nozze di Figaro in Rome in May/June 2015, I Vespri Siciliani in Copenhagen, also Anna Kasyan's debut as Musetta/La Bohème at the Opéra de Toulon where she also sang Rosina/ Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Hélène/Vêpres Siciliennes by Verdi in Nice and also Rusalka/Rusalka in Rome. She also did a series of concerts in France with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Toulon conducted by Giuliano Carella. In June 2012, she sung the role of Clorinda/La Cenerentola and this opera film produced by Andrea Andermann was broadcasted live in more than 150 countries worldwide and will be released on DVD this year. 

Future highlights include Rosina/Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Copenhagen Royal Opera in season 17/18.

Novus Quartet / Lise Berthaud / Ophélie Gaillard TCHAIKOVSKY String Quartet No. 1 - Souvenir de Florence

After an audacious label and album debut dedicated to Webern, Beethoven and Yun, the young musicians of the Novus Quartet interpret with passion two essential works from Tchaikovsky's chamber music: the First Quartet and the Sextet 'Souvenir de Florence' aided and abetted by two guests, cellist Ophélie Gaillard and viola player Lise Berthaud.

These two works, milestones in the career of the composer (the first written in 1871; the second in 1887), show Tchaikovsky's inclination for popular melodies. Clarity and technique serving musical expression, the fiery strings of the Novus Quartet spread a warm, homogenous sound that invites melancholy, in the slow movements, and paints the exultation of Tchaikovsky's poetic universe.

Ophélie Gaillard / Pulcinella BACH Arias

Ophelie Gaillard has made recently a deep impression with the Suites for cello solo by Jean-Sebastian Bach. On this new recording, dedicated to the Cantor of Leipzig, she gathered her close team from the Pulcinella Ensemble and invited some of the most talented soloists: Sandrine Piau, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, Christophe Dumaux.

This programme gives a vision of the most beautiful cantatas written by Jean-Sebastian Bach in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, interspersed with some of the masterpieces from the 'Schübler' Chorales and Orgelbüchlein.

With a passion for Baroque music played on period instruments, Pulcinella is a group of virtuoso soloists, gathered in a chamber spirit around cellist Ophélie Gaillard. Highly experienced musicians, who attach great importance to sound and articulation, they explore some of the major works of the repertoire, while aiming to present little known or unknown pieces as well.

Part of Pulcinella’s repertoire is devoted to important 17th- and 18th-century works for concerted cello, of which it is one of the foremost ambassadors. The ensemble’s first recording, devoted to Vivaldi’s complete Cello Sonatas (on Ambroisie) was highly acclaimed by the international press in 2006. The following year its tribute (with Sandrine Piau and Rolf Lislevand) to the cellist and composer Luigi Boccherini also received excellent reviews, including praise from The Times.

Pulcinella works with singers including Nuria Rial, Salomé Haller, Sandrine Piau, Max Emmanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata, Christophe Dumaux, Carlos Mena, Dietr ich Henschel, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, who are among its guests at major festivals, such as those of Saint-Denis, Beaune, and Santiago de Compostela, and at venues such as the Cité de la Musique and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Sandrine Chatron / Ophélie Gaillard / Michael Bennett A BRITISH PROMENADE

A 1994 graduate of the Paris Conservatory in harp and chamber music, Sandrine Chatron is also the winner of the Louise Charpentier Competition (1998) and the Arles chamber music competition, as well as being distinguished by the Natexis-Banque Populaire Foundation and the ‘Déclic’ series of Cultures-France. She avidly stands up for the repertoire of her instrument, from the classical harp to contemporary creation, whether as a soloist or chamber player, and within prestigious orchestral ensembles. 

As a soloist, she has performed in the Présences festival, at the Champs-Élysées Theatre, the Orsay Museum and the Maison de Radio France, with the Orchestre Colonne, the Ensemble Fa, La Grande Écurie & La Chambre du Roy, the Nederlands Kammer Orkest and the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra. She has premiered works by Pierre Boulez (Sur Incises), K. Maratka in 2010, S. Yoshida in 2009, and R. Nillni at the Festival Présences in 2008. 

She takes pleasure in revealing unpublished or little-known scores and has to her credit two critically-acclaimed albums, with Naïve for the Ambroisie collection (‘André Caplet and his contemporaries’ in 2005), and in 2009 ‘Le Salon de Musique de Marie-Antoinette’, recorded on a single-action Erard harp from the Musée de la Musique. She was appointed solo harpist of the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest in 2009. Since 2012 she has taught at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. 

As the title of her new disc British Promenade suggests it, the harpist Sandrine Chatron takes us on a musical wandering in the early 20th England. Along the journey, we meet little known artists, such as Herbert Howells or Cyril Scott, but also the famous Benjamin Britten. Their scores for harp carry us to England, among coastal views and bucolic landscapes. The lyricism of Ophélie Gaillard's cello and the warmth of Michael Bennett's tenor voice enhance the evocative power of the music and complete the pointillist qualities of the harp. (Aparté)

Ophélie Gaillard SCHUMANN - LISZT

Schumann’s Cello Concerto was long regarded as a minor achievement; it has also been accused of treating the solo instrument unfavourably. As is often the case with the compositions of Schumann’s middle and late periods, interpreters must understand its singularity in order to bring it out. It is thanks to great performers such as the legendary cellist Pablo Casals, for whom Schumann’s Cello Concerto was “one of the finest works one could wish to hear – sublime music from beginning to end”, that this work now at last has its rightful place in the repertoire. 

Although relations between Schumann and Liszt were often clouded by Clara’s lack of understanding, and even jealousy, Liszt recognised his friend’s genius better than anyone, and at Weimar conducted scores that had not been understood when they were first performed. We do not know whether or not Liszt knew the Cello Concerto, but he was reliant on transcriptions as a source of income. 

Ophélie Gaillard has chosen five pieces for cello and piano: two were originally songs with piano accompaniment written in his youth; the other three pieces, dating from the end of Liszt’s life, show the soberness and bold language that characterise his late works. 

Although a Baroque specialist, Gaillard is also very fond of Romantic repertoire. Her recording for Ambroisie of the complete cello works of Schumann, Fauré, and later Chopin were highly acclaimed by the press, while the solo album Dreams (Aparté), made at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, proved to be a great public success. 

Ophélie Gaillard plays a cello by Francesco Goffriller (1737), generously loaned to her by CIC, and also an anonymous Flemish violoncello piccolo. 

Ophélie Gaillard EXILES

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States, land of freedom, open to the world, a democracy concerned with human rights, attracted emigrants of all origins. Rightly or wrongly, the young nation, in full economic expansion, embodied a land of redemption for the composers brought together by Ophélie Gaillard.

After Alvorada, her globe-trotting cello leads us in the footsteps of Bloch, Korngold, Prokofiev, Chava Alberstein and Giora Feidmann, singing their exile, whether suffered or deliberately chosen. She makes us vibrate to the sound of a film score (Korngold’s Concerto), a prayer (From Jewish Life), an Hebraic narrative (Schelomo), a lullaby, a wedding dance… The spirit of celebration, tenderness, religious meditation: so many facets of daily life and the culture of several generations of Jewish immigrants, related by Ophélie Gaillard’s humanistic bow.

Ophélie Gaillard / Edna Stern CHOPIN

This is a very satisfying album, pairing two highly attuned artists. Ophélie Gaillard is a beautiful cellist. She plays with a lovely, somewhat tangy tone that is expressively produced in every register. She, like Edna Stern, is a somewhat reticent player. Gaillard never tries to bowl you over with high volume, unlike Yo Yo Ma. One hears in her tone and phrasing, perhaps, the influence of Casals. Gaillard plays a 1737 Goffriller cello, here with an 1840 bow. There is no reference to the type of strings used. I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Edna Stern’s solo Chopin recital on Naïve. After studying the modern piano with Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, and Leon Fleisher, Stern in 2003 began work on the fortepiano under the guidance of Patrick Cohen. The 1843 Pleyel piano she plays on this CD features leather covered hammers; one rarely is aware of its being a percussive instrument. The Pleyel was Chopin’s favorite piano. In it one hears on this album Chopin’s preference for subtlety and singing phrasing. It is an instrument with warmth and decorum.
From the beginning of the Cello Sonata, you are particularly aware of the special balance between the instruments. This piano cannot overpower the cello. Rather, the two instruments speak with equal voices. Chopin appropriately premiered the sonata at a private concert for a few friends, including Delacroix. The cellist on that occasion also played part of it for the composer two days before his death. One of the features of the first movement in Gaillard and Stern’s hands is the exquisitely blended soft playing. In structure, the movement has elements of a fantasy. The cello seems to depict the part of a wanderer in a romantic dramatic scene. For Chopin, the cello here performs almost as an instrumental surrogate for the human voice.
The remaining three movements of the sonata are shorter altogether than the whole first movement is. The A section of the Scherzo sounds like a Schumannesque folk dance, sort of a character piece. The B section here is played lushly and passionately, truly con brio . In the Largo, Gaillard and Stern trade the melody between them with great sensitivity, creating an intimate dialogue. In the finale, both players avoid the temptation to become overindulgent in phrasing or dynamics. Their performance here has a pleasing sobriety, rendering the movement of a piece with the rest of the sonata. I think that, as sound, this recording is an ideal representation of how the sonata would come across on these instruments in a modest-sized room. If you must have the power of a modern piano, I am very fond of the recording by Ofra Harnoy and Cyprien Katsaris, but I suspect I will be returning more often to Gaillard and Stern.
The other original work for cello and piano on this album, the Introduction and Polonaise brillante , receives a reading that is both elegant and spirited. The virtuosity of the two players sounds so easy as to be taken for granted. Edna Stern also performs the two nocturnes of op. 37. In No. 1, the A section is pensive, while the B section has a gravitas that the drone-like bass of the Pleyel enhances. No. 2 features soft, luminous playing; the voicing of the chords has warmth. Gaillard and Stern also have arranged four solo piano pieces for cello and piano. The two preludes are not completely successful transcriptions. Although the cello here is well showcased, the restriction of the piano part to the harmony alone seems uncharacteristic of the composer. The transcriptions of the op. 72 Nocturne and the Waltz No. 11 succeed beautifully, as the two instrumentalists play off the melody between them. This performance of the waltz invites a reference to Schumann’s critical judgment that it is “a waltz more for the soul than for the body.” If you like transcriptions of this sort, I strongly recommend Ruggiero Ricci’s CD of Chopin nocturnes transcribed for violin and piano.
The recorded sound, from IRCAM in Paris, is natural, and the instruments are placed in a realistic relationship to each other. This CD is my first opportunity to hear Chopin’s chamber music on period instruments. It has enriched my view of the composer, making him seem altogether more companionable and a little less formidable. One tends to think of Schubert as being lovable, but not Chopin. This album redresses that balance. (Dave Saemann)

Ophélie Gaillard ALVORADA

Alvorada or the invitation to the voyage of cellist Ophélie Gaillard and her magical cello, a musical tour from Spain to Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Cuba) featuring, in particular, the composers Villa-Lobos, Granados, Piazzolla and Jobim. In an exceptional mixture of classical pieces and arrangements of the greatest themes of this intense music, the cello sings with the bandoneon, dances with the piano, guitar or percussion, and abandons itself in amorous intimacy with the voices. Alvorada immerses us in a sound universe where the feverish energy of the rhythms of this Hispanic and South-American music entrances us and from which a sensual nostalgia responds to a dizzying tango. All the senses are aroused when hearing these spellbinding songs and rhythms. The colour of the sun, from dawn to dusk, is found in the clever alternation of these enchanting, universal pieces. All the exceptional musicians (Sabine Devieilhe, Toquinho, Sandra Rumolino, Juanjo Mosalini, Rudi Flores, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Gabriel Sivak…) participating in the Alvorada voyage hypnotize and fascinate us, allowing us to accompany them at every instant in the progression of this dream proposed by Ophélie Gaillard.

Ophélie Gaillard / Pulcinella Orchestra CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH Vol. 2

After the success of their first volume Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella propose a second disc devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach's most talented and surprising son, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788). The Sinfonia in C major expresses multiple emotions, ranging from irrepressible suffering in the Adagio to joyous release and insouciance in the concluding Allegretto, tinged with near-Mozartian grace. The Cello Concerto in B flat reveals the influence of the waning Baroque era and Vivaldi in particular. The Sinfonia in E minor, nicknamed 'Fandango' and dating from his Berlin years, is commonly regarded as one of his finest symphonies. The particularly virtuosic Sonata for cello piccolo and keyboard shows to advantage the two soloists of this recording: Ophélie Gaillard and Francesco Corti, whose fieriness is further revealed in the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor. (Presto Classical)

Ophélie Gaillard / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra DREAMS

Swiss-French cellist Ophélie Gaillard, who has made a name for herself recording some of the most challenging repertoire for her instrument, including the suites of Bach and Britten, turns her considerable talents to lighter fare in this album of transcriptions of short Romantic classics. She is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Timothy Redmond, in arrangements made by composer and producer Craig Leon, who had created a similar album for violinist Joshua Bell. The pieces include opera arias (from Rusalka, La sonnambula, L'elisir d'amore, and Gianni Schicchi), piano works by Debussy, Satie, and Chopin, and other vocal, instrumental, and orchestral music by Fauré, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. Almost all are close to the top of charts of the most familiar and broadly popular classical pieces. Gaillard brings a warm, generous tone and creamy legato to this lyrical repertoire. Redmond's thoughtful accompaniments are imaginative and creative in pieces where it would have been easy just to haul out the tried and true, predictable approaches. Leon's arrangements are wonderfully inventive and colorful; he really knows how to make the soloist shine, and the little details of orchestration, particularly in the transcriptions of the piano pieces, add layers of depth that makes his work outstanding. The sound is full-bodied and nicely present, with ideal balance. The album would be a great place to start for listeners just dipping their toes into classical music for the first time and should also appeal to fans of fine cello playing. (Stephen Eddins)

Ophélie Gaillard / Pulcinella Orchestra CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH

This programme presents a portrait, on the tercentenary of the composer's birth, of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), who was probably the most gifted of the sons of the famous Johann Sebastian Bach. Highly admired in his own century by Haydn, Gluck and Mozart, he stands out today as a brilliant and highly original composer.
'A musician cannot move others unless he is himself moved: it is essential for him to experience all the moods he wishes to arouse in his listeners. [...] In languid, sad places, he will become languid and sad; this must be both audible and visible.'
For Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, music had to be an expression of personal feelings. To achieve his aim, he did not hesitate to revolutionise the established principles of form, harmony and rhythm. His compositions are very personal and very free, with sudden changes of key, uneven phrase lengths and strong and unexpected contrasts, so that his music constantly holds the listener's attention.
The Trio Sonata 'Sanguineus und Melancholicus' is a rarity in the composer's output in that it is a quasi-programmatic work. It presents a conversation between two persons, the one sanguine (first violin) and the other melancholic (second violin). The same duality is found throughout the recordings presented here, from the well-known Sinfonia no. 5 to the two brilliant cello concertos.
With this revolutionary music, we find ourselves a whirl of emotions! Under the bow of cellist Ophélie Gaillard, at the head of the virtuosic Pulcinella Orchestra, these pieces come as a revelation!

Ophélie Gaillard JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Cello Suites

The Bach Cello Suites are an iconic monument of the literature with which any serious cellist must grapple. Performances can vary from the metronomically precise just-play-the-notes approach to the other extreme in which a player's idiosyncratic interpretations are so pronounced that they become the center of attention rather than Bach's sublime music. This 2010 version is French cellist Ophélie Gaillard's second recording of the suites, the first made a decade earlier when she was in her mid-twenties. For the most part Gaillard's take on the music (like that of most sensible cellists) lies somewhere in between, but with some movements closer to the eccentric end of the spectrum. Gaillard's technical fluency is unimpeachable.

 Her intonation, even in the most outrageous multiple-stop chords, is impeccable. She plays with a ripe, absolutely luscious tone that may not suit the taste of the most fervent period performance devotees but that would likely elicit wonder from just about everyone else. Her use of vibrato is circumspect and period-appropriate. She is scrupulous about observing repeats and her use of ornamentation is elegant and understated. The fluidity and unself-conscious physicality of Gaillard's playing keeps the listener aware that except for the preludes, this is sunny, dance-based music. Her handling of the faster movements is especially delightful; the Gigue from the Second Suite and the Bourées from the Fourth (among many others) are just plain fun. It's in some of the preludes where the idiosyncrasies of her interpretation may lose some listeners. The Prelude to the First Suite, consisting entirely of sixteenth note figures, is an interpretive challenge and it's one of the movements to which performers have applied the widest range of rhythmic freedom. Gaillard puts heavy emphasis on the downbeats and frequently sustains them for twice their written length, and she brings a similar approach to the Prelude of the Fourth Suite. Depending on the listener's perspective, her playing of these movements may come across as either expansively elastic or weirdly distended.

A factor that's almost inevitably an issue in recordings of such intimate music for solo string instruments, and sometimes string chamber music, is the clear audibility of strings slapping the soundboard and the player's breathing. In almost any live performing situation, these would not be heard because those sounds don't tend to carry, and an audience member sitting even in the first row would be unlikely to notice them, so a recording is an unfortunately unnatural way to experience this music. The extraneous sounds are only minimally distracting here; Gaillard's breathing, while not annoying or always audible, can sound labored, as if she were working very hard, and that seems to contradict the apparent ease and flexibility of her playing. Otherwise, the acoustic is very fine, with a detailed, spacious, and nicely resonant ambience.