Between dusk and dawn: Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández presents ‘Moonlight Variations’

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Named after his great Spanish predecessor on the cello and hailed by some as ‘the next Yo-Yo Ma’, the Tchaikovsky prize-winning Pablo Ferrández made his debut on Sony Classical in 2021 with Reflections, an album that thoughtfully juxtaposes Spanish and Russian sensibilities – a nod to his musical roots with his early teacher Natalia Shakhovskaya, herself a former pupil of Rostropovich.

Ferrández, born in 1991 in Madrid, now turns his attention to the full cycle of musical emotion in Moonlight Variations, featuring collaborations with longtime musical partner Julien Quentin at the keyboard and Martin Fröst leading the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. The cellist describes this concept album as ’night followed by day’. 

Moonlight Variations is anchored by the remarkable stylistic range of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, a work Ferrández has lived with for two decades, and explores the contrasting expressive worlds of nocturnal introspection leading to morning clarity. Through an intimate sequence of nocturnes, song transcriptions and lyrical miniatures – some newly arranged for cello – that culminate in the Rococo Variations, Ferrández reflects on his fascination with night-time and how it enhances imagination and perception.

The album also marks Ferrández’s first full recording on the 1689 ‘Archinto’ Stradivari cello, whose warm, vocal tone suits both the cello’s innate lyricism and the album’s twilight sensibility. ‘I feel more creative at night. I’m not alone in that’, he says. ’So many composers have written special music connected to this time. They all felt a difference in the world once the sun had gone down.’

Ferrández spoke with US correspondent Thomas May about the emotional landscape of night music, what the cello can reveal about the voice and the enduring role of the Rococo Variations in his life as a performer.

Your new album is built around a striking concept: ‘night followed by day’. What inspired the idea to explore this emotional arc?

Pablo Ferrández: I’ve always been fascinated by how our mood shifts throughout the day – not just our mood, but also how receptive we are to different stimuli. I think everyone has experienced this in one way or another: you don’t have the same conversations over dinner as you do over breakfast. And I find music to be a wonderful medium through which to explore those different sensations and emotional states. As an artist, I really enjoy diving into that.

How did the idea shape your choices of repertoire and arrangements? How are the other Romantic-era pieces you’ve selected connected with the Tchaikovsky centrepiece?

Pablo Ferrández: The Rococo Variations is a piece I’ve wanted to record for a long time. It’s been with me for the past 20 years. Although it’s relatively short in length, it has an enormous emotional range – from the innocent charm of the theme to the lyrical beauty of the variations. Variation No. 3 is sunny and bright, while Variation No. 6 feels almost nocturnal and intimate. And of course, there’s the brilliant virtuosity throughout. From there, the next natural step was Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne, and that’s when the idea started to form: to create an album around night-themed pieces and nocturnes.

The Rococo Variations has been a constant companion in your life for two decades. What makes it so special for you? What was it like to finally record the piece – especially with Martin Fröst, who brings such a distinct perspective as a clarinetist and conductor?

Pablo Ferrández: It’s rare to spend so many years with a single piece. I remember how challenging it was to make the Rococo Variations sound light and effortless when I first studied it as a student. But over the years, with a lot of work, the piece slowly starts to take shape. Now, it’s one of the pieces I feel most comfortable with. 

I loved recording it with Martin [Fröst]. He’s such a remarkable musician. I remember playing the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with him many years ago in Verbier – it completely blew me away, the elegance and class of his playing. And since Tchaikovsky admired Mozart so much, I always thought that he was trying to sound a bit like Mozart in this piece (albeit with Tchaikovsky’s Romantic flair). I tried to channel some of that Mozartian spirit in our interpretation.

Several of the works on the album – songs, piano nocturnes, even an opera aria – weren’t originally written for cello. What were the musical or expressive qualities that made you want to bring these particular pieces into the cello’s sound world?

Pablo Ferrández: One of the most enjoyable parts of this album was ‘discovering’ some of these pieces anew on the cello. I’ve always thought that the Rococo Variations could easily be a violin piece – it’s so agile and light, especially compared to other cello works – so it made sense in my mind to pair it with pieces not originally written for cello.

What did you especially enjoy about the process of making these arrangements for your instrument?

Pablo Ferrández: Recording Chopin’s Nocturnes was especially exciting for me. I’ve been a huge admirer of his music for a long time, but because his pieces are so perfectly written for piano, I never dared to arrange or perform them – until now. I’m very happy with the result. I think the cello brings a vocal, singing quality to these pieces that’s truly worth exploring. One of the great discoveries for me was Dvořák’s Song to the Moon. I’ve always loved playing vocal music, because when I play, I’m always imagining that I’m either singing or speaking – it feels very natural to me.

You mention being especially creative at night. Do you find that this time of day also changes how you physically approach the cello or how you experience sound?

Pablo Ferrández: It’s true that we become more emotionally receptive as the day goes on. There’s something special about sound and emotion at night. It’s well known among musicians that matinee concerts are the hardest. I’ve yet to meet a colleague who prefers them over evening performances!

This is your first album recorded on the 1689 ‘Archinto’ Stradivari. How did its sound influence your interpretation or the overall mood of the album?

Pablo Ferrández: Yes, this is my first full album recorded with the Archinto. My connection with this cello was immediate. I felt at home with it almost instantly. In fact, I recorded my first piece with it – the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which was released a couple of years ago – just ten hours after receiving it.

I did record the Brahms Double Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter on the ’Lord Aylesford’, because I had promised that piece to that cello. But for Clara Schumann’s Trio on that album, I used the Archinto – a little Easter egg for anyone interested in comparing the two instruments in the same album. 

The ’Archinto’ has grown a lot since then, and I’ve grown with it. It’s fascinating to hear the transformation in sound from that Bach Aria to the Tchaikovsky Variations. The cello has an incredibly warm tone, and physically I connect with it very well – it’s surprisingly easy to play, especially for a Stradivari. Honestly, I think it’s the best cello in the world. After my wife, it’s the love of my life.

What does your pianist partner Julien Quentin bring to these interpretations?

Pablo Ferrández: With Julien, we have a truly organic musical connection. Playing with him is effortless. We enjoy making music together so much – it was an obvious choice to record all these pieces with him. The fact that he has also performed the original piano versions of some of the works we arranged added an extra layer of depth to our interpretations.

You’ve said that playing lieder on the cello is about approaching singing,  ‘that more human kind of expression’. How do you think of the cello as a vocal instrument – especially when translating the intimacy of night music into sound?

Pablo Ferrández: I don’t know about other musicians, but when I play, I’m always trying to sing – or speak – with the cello. That’s really my goal with every note. Nothing communicates more directly than the human voice, and for us instrumentalists, we have to work through the ‘filter’ of our instrument, which takes years of practice. But the goal is always to get as close to that natural communication as possible. The cello, with its vocal range and warmth, lends itself beautifully to that.

One more thing I tried to explore on the album – this is also tied to the theme of night – was a certain nostalgic, old-school way of playing. Especially in the violin transcriptions, I used a kind of vibrato that I love, something a bit ‘kaffeehaus’, if you will. I think it suited the repertoire perfectly.

Pablo Ferrández’s Moonlight Variations is released on 23 May 2025 on Sony Classical

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