Kian Soltani / Aaron Pilsan HOME

Born in 1992 to Iranian parents in the Austrian town of Bregenz, Kian Soltani is one of the most exciting cellists of his generation. “I’ve always felt at home in Austria”, he says. “And yet, the Persian side of my family gave me a chance to grow up with two cultures.” Bringing together Austro-German Romantic works and contemporary Iranian music, Soltani’s debut DG album, Home, expresses that sense of being rooted in a dual heritage. His pianist is Aaron Pilsan, whose background has parallels with Soltani’s. Home is due for release on 12 January, and Soltani and Pilsan will be performing some of its repertoire live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin early in the new year.

There are plenty of young cellists out there, but very few as versatile as Kian Soltani. The son of professional musicians from Iran, Soltani was born in 1992 in Bregenz, in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. He was shaped by two cultures, and they both feature on his debut Deutsche Grammophon album, for which he has chosen the title Home. Alongside works by Schubert and Schumann, Soltani presents a set of Persian Folk Songs by contemporary Iranian composer Reza Vali (b. 1952). “I’m Austrian”, says the cellist, “but there has always been this other, Persian, side to me as well.”

On Home, he travels from Romanticism, with its desire to emulate European folk music, to a living composer’s take on Persian folk traditions. Beginning with works by Schumann and Schubert – “I grew up with them and I feel at home with this music” – he rounds off the album with music by Reza Vali, a friend of the family who, like the Soltanis, emigrated from Iran. Vali’s Persian Folk Songs was written to commission and premiered by Kian Soltani and Aaron Pilsan in May 2017.

“For this album, I chose works that remind me of home and which I really love.” Past and present, West and East, art music and folk song... the tension between them gives rise to a sound at whose heart lies the question of provenance. Who am I? Where do I belong? It’s a series of musical pictures. (Deutsche Grammophon)