A long-overdue celebration of a pioneering cellist
The Strad Issue: January 2026
Description: A long-overdue celebration of a pioneering cellist
Musicians: Sol Gabetta (cello) Irina Zahharenkova, Victor Julien-Laferrière (piano) Cappella Gabetta
Works: Batta: Fantasy on Rossini’s ‘William Tell’; Romance on Donizetti’s ‘Una furtiva lagrima’. Offenbach: Prière and Boléro; Musette. Rossini: Une larme. Schubert: Du bist die Ruh; Ständchen; Ave Maria (arr. Batta). Servais: La Romanesca; Souvenir de Spa; Fantaisie sur deux airs russes
Catalogue number: SONY CLASSICAL 19802971442
In her latest album Sol Gabetta takes us back to Paris in 1845, where the young Lise Cristiani, skilfully promoted by her grandfather, achieved superstar status as the first female cellist to perform professionally. Just eight years later she was dead from cholera aged 26 in the Caucasus – but not before she had bought a Stradivari cello and done some extreme touring right across Russia to Kamchatka, travelling by sleigh on frozen rivers with her cello wrapped in wolf skins.
Most of the music here is known to have been performed by Cristiani, though it’s a mystery why Mendelssohn’s Song without Words, dedicated to her, is not included. Crowds across Europe were struck by Cristiani’s heartfelt playing.
Sol Gabetta certainly mirrors this, pulling at the heartstrings in the shorter pieces such as Servais’s La Romanesca, a particular favourite of Cristiani, and Batta’s lovely Schubert song transcriptions. The opulent, wall-to-wall velvety tone Gabetta draws from her 1730 Gofriller cello is closely miked, and her double-stops in Offenbach’s Prière ring out beautifully.
A lot of the music is rather vacuous, although Gabetta’s increasingly fast and furious virtuosity, culminating in a rapid variation all in octaves in Servais’s Souvenir de Spa – a total frippery – does take the breath away.
JANET BANKS
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