Matt Haimovitz / Philippe Cassard PORTES OUVERTES

Matt Haimovitz’s latest recital of twentieth-century cello compositions sustains the thesis of its predecessors (12/95 and 5/97) that extreme contrast, not merely variety, has been the spice of twentieth-century musical life. To juxtapose two works from 1914, Reger’s Third Suite and Webern’s Three Little Pieces, the former expansive and retrospective, the latter aphoristic and reaching nervously into an unknowable future, makes the point with admirable immediacy.

The rest of the music here is more mainstream, the Britten Sonata showing that there was as much mileage left in the old classical genres in 1960 as Debussy had found in his Sonata more than 40 years before. With these works, of course, Haimowitz is competing against a long series of distinguished predecessors on disc, and his partnership with Cassard (how often have they played these works in concert, I wonder?) can’t match the empathy of Moray Welsh and John Lenehan in the Britten, or – it goes without saying – of Rostropovich and Britten himself in both sonatas.

The recording as such is at its best in the unaccompanied works, its closeness and resonance reinforcing the powerful musical profile of Dutilleux’s elegant yet forceful Strophes, and helping to ensure that Reger does not seriously outstay his welcome. In Webern, Debussy and Britten the piano sound has an abrasive aspect to it, as if the object were to underline the incompatibility of two such different instruments. But the playing is technically first-rate, and should certainly open doors (why the French title?) to anyone exploring this repertory for the first time.' (Arnold Whittall / Gramophone)

Natalie Dessay / Philippe Cassard SCHUBERT

Since the beginning of her career, Natalie Dessay has sung on the most important international stages and has been regularly invited by the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala , Gran Teatre del Liceu , the Royal Opera House in London , and the Paris National Opera. 

A great performer of the French repertoire , she has sung Ophélie, Minka, Lakmé, Olympia, Juliette, and Manon , and has enjoyed great success in the bel canto repertoire in La sonnambula and particularly in Lucia di Lammermoor , a role she has sung at the Chicago Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris National Opera, and she has recorded under Valery Gergiev. She has also performed Marie in La fille du régiment , directed by Laurent Pelly , which was performed at the Covent Garden Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera , and the Paris National Opera; and Violetta in La traviata in Tokyo, at the Aixen - Provence Festival, the Vienna State Opera , and the Metropolitan Opera. 

Ms. Dessay has collaborated with Michel Legrand, with whom she has been on tour in Europe, and North and South America , with a stop in Koerner Hall . She continues her recital career with bass - baritone Laurent Naouri and pianist Maciej Pikulski with a program dedicated to French songs , and she regularly gives recitals with Philippe Cassard, performing German Lieder and French songs. She records exclusively for Sony Classical and, with Cassard, she released Claire de Lune in 2013 , Fiançai lles pour rire in 2015 , and new CD, dedicated to Schubert, in March 2017.