Geoffroy Couteau continue à servir l’œuvre de Brahms, ici en compagnie du violoncelliste Raphaël Perraud, avec la ferveur qu’on lui a connu dans son intégrale pour piano parue au Printemps 2016.
Comme les trois sonates pour violon et piano, les deux sonates pour violoncelle et piano constituent des pages de première importance dans le corpus de Brahms. Puissamment lyriques, royaume de l’intériorité pure, elles fournissent un aperçu de sa période de jeunesse comme celle de sa grande maturité, voisine de sa quatrième et ultime symphonie. Sommets de la musique de chambre, ces Sonates d’une humanité protéiforme exigent de leurs interprètes autant de complémentarité que d’osmose.
Geoffroy Couteau et Raphaël Perraud imposent un équilibre savamment mûri. Douceur et emportement, mélancolie et frénésie, méditation et exaltation s’y côtoient en des inflexions d’une éloquente spontanéité. L’aspect fantastique de ce combat entre violoncelle et piano ne cesse de gagner en profondeur et en lyrisme au fil de ce programme.

BRAHMS, Cello Sonata no.1 in E minor, op.38 - Allegro non troppo

Creativity is not something that can be turned on and off like a tap . . . 
Art is a labour of love, a question of patience and concentration. To place demands on it, criteria, quotas, damages it, slowly kills it. Art, like nature, must be allowed to develop and to grow, in order to attain plenitude. Following this principle, La Dolce Volta prefers to privilege quality over quantity. Releases are limited to ten albums a year, but each of them is the fruit of in-depth work, and above all a special relationship between the soloist and the composer. The artists’ virtuosity is coupled with their ineffable and highly personal approach, a feeling that can only be expressed through music. 
And since jewels worthy of the name can only be offered in special cases, the albums La Dolce Volta releases are themselves works of art: each record cover is an original work of art; the digipack’s inner sleeve includes a booklet in four languages and an interview with the musician. A bandeau is wrapped around each album, on which is printed the name of the soloist, the name of the composer, and the work performed. 
For La Dolce Volta, music is not just a shrink-wrapped object for sale. Like all beautiful things in life, it must come to fruition naturally, the result of careful craftsmanship, and offered like an exquisite flower. 
For La Dolce Volta music is a question of elegance and beauty without concessions.

BRAHMS, Cello Sonata no.1 in E minor, op.38 - Allegro non troppo

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