At the Solsberg Festival in 2012, the star of cello Sol Gabetta is accompanied by Baïba Skride, Vilde Frang, Ula Uljiona, Bertrand Chamayou and Frank Braley to perform works by Franck and Debussy.
The Solsberg Festival was founded in 2006 by Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta who is now its Artistic Director. In an exceptional site – the Baroque church St. Martin in Rheinfelden and the Olsberg's cloister – the festival gathers once a year some of the best contemporary talents in the world in a friendly atmosphere with exceptional concerts.
In 2012, the 7th edition of the festival welcomes choice musicians alongside Sol Gabetta: violinists Baïba Skride (1st prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2001) and Vilde Frang (who made her debuts at the Lucerne Festival under Bernard Haitink's baton), violist Ula Ulijona (1st prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition and soloist of the Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra of Baltic countries). They are joined by pianists Bertrand Chamayou (who was awarded in 2012 a Victoire de la Musique classique in the category Instrumental Soloist of the Year) and Frank Braley (Premier Grand Prix and Prix du Public at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1991 aged only 22).
The concert opens with a major work of national chamber music, the Quintet for Piano and Strings in F Minor composed by César Franck in 1879 and dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. With this quintet, César Franck led the style to its height, which was afterwards brilliantly taken again by great composers among whom Ernest Chausson, Gabriel Fauré and Gabriel Pierné.
The second part of this concert is devoted to the Épigraphes antiques, a cycle of six piano pieces for four hands, composed in 1914 by Claude Debussy. Indeed Debussy took back some elements of an unique score he had composed in 1901 to accompany his friend Pierre Louÿs, the Songs of Bilitis. These "musical miniatures" reflect influences of Antiquity, not only according to the themes, the sounds, but also according to their shape reminding us of symmetrical structures that characterized art works in ancient Greece.
