Sentimental Work: Matt Haimovitz

Today, Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello is everywhere. I’m always hearing it at auditions, in competitions and when I’m teaching at McGill University, but when I first came across it 30 years ago it was almost unheard of. At that time I was focusing on Romantic repertoire and hardly played anything by living composers, so it was particularly new to me. I was in Salzburg making my first solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon, and we’d finished early so we had some spare time. The producer Steven Paul came in with this newly published piece by Ligeti, who I didn’t know at all, and I played it for him. Unknown to me, Steven was recording the whole session, and then sent the tape directly over to Ligeti. The first I knew was when the composer phoned us to say we could make a full recording. Steven has always been good at getting creative people together to make things happen!