Kian Soltani CELLO UNLIMITED

 

CELLO UNLIMITED

 

Martha Argerich / Michael Barenboim / Kian Soltani / Staatskapelle Berlin / Daniel Barenboim CLAUDE DEBUSSY

 

CLAUDE DEBUSSY

 

Daniel Barenboim / Michael Barenboim / Kian Soltani BEETHOVEN Piano Trios

 

PIANO TRIOS

 

Kian Soltani DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto

CELLO CONCERTO

Daniel Barenboim / Michael Barenboim / Kian Soltani MOZART Piano Trios

Deutsche Grammophon releases Daniel Barenboim’s latest album, Mozart: Piano Trios, featuring Kian Soltani (cello) and Michael Barenboim (violin).

In the album’s program notes, Artistic Director of Mozartwoche and acclaimed tenor Rolando Villazón shares:

“There is a delicious combination of mastery and innocence in their interpretation, the music is Mozart’s, they have stolen it from him with great respect, and now it is theirs.”

Lahav Shani / Renaud Capuçon / Kian Soltani DVORÁK Piano Trio No. 3 TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Trio Op. 50

This recording features two major works of the chamber repertoire – one by Antonín Dvořák, the other by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The two composers were contemporaries, born just a year apart: Tchaikovsky in 1840 and Dvořák in 1841. In the 1880s (Tchaikovsky’s Op.50 dates from 1881/1882, Dvořák’s Op.65 from 1883), neither man was known for his chamber music – Tchaikovsky’s reputation was based on his opera and ballet scores (works such as Eugene Onegin and Swan Lake), while Dvořák had made his name with works influenced by Slavonic folk music (the Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances). Each of these two piano trios therefore has its own unique character, and both works signal new directions in the style of their respective composers.

Daniel Barenboim / Michael Barenboim / Yulia Deyneka / Kian Soltani MOZART Piano Quartets

Daniel Barenboim has signed a new and exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

He will work with the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Staatsoper unter den Linden, the Boulez Ensemble and members of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, with many recording sessions taking place in the the Boulez Saal.

DG will develop three distinct recording series, focusing on Barenboim as pianist and conductor, chamber musician, and ‘educator and innovator’. The latter will take the form of digital-only releases on Barenboim’s own label, Peral Music, and will be complemented by social media campaigns, a strong YouTube presence and programmes for children’s television; Barenboim will appear as a character in Max & Maestro, a 52-part cartoon series co-produced by RAI, France Television and ARD-HR, in which he introduces 11-year-old rapper Max to classical music.

Two physical albums are set for release this summer: a Brahms symphony cycle with the Staatskapelle Berlin, and Mozart’s two piano quartets with Michael Barenboim, Kian Soltani and Yulia Deyneka.

Future albums include Dvořák’s cello concerto with Kian Soltani and the Staatskapelle Berlin, and Smetana’s Má Vlast with the Wiener Philharmoniker. There are also plans to mark Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in 2020 with major releases featuring such leading artists as Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-Yo Ma.

Barenboim said he believed the new relationship would help to introduce ‘the philosophy of the Pierre Boulez Saal, with its vision of the “thinking ear” and of active, engaged listening, to a large new audience.’

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)