Album: Sol Gabetta – Lise Cristiani
Artists: Sol Gabetta (cello), Irina Zahharenkova (fortepiano), Cappella Gabetta, Luca Magariello (cello), Victor Julien-Laferrière (cello)
Label: Sony Classical
Released: 10 October 2025
Repertoire: Works by François Servais, Alexander Batta (including a fantasy on Rossini), Jacques Offenbach, and Gioachino Rossini (Une larme); arrangements of music by Franz Schubert and Gaetano Donizetti
Available on all streaming platforms
By Damián Autorino
Editor at Moto Perpetuo
More than a new album, Sol Gabetta – Lise Cristiani is a story. And not just a personal story — although it clearly is one — but a layered journey into 19th-century cello culture, gender politics, forgotten repertoire, and artistic legacy. It’s a recording that rescues a name almost lost to time: Lise Cristiani (1825–1853), the first known female cellist to build a public career on stage.
A child of modest origins in Paris, Cristiani stunned audiences in the 1840s with both her courage and her artistry, playing the cello at a time when women weren’t even supposed to hold the instrument in public. She performed across Europe, was admired by Mendelssohn, Offenbach, and Servais, and eventually toured as far as Siberia — a truly radical act for a soloist of any gender, let alone a woman in the 1840s. She died young, at 27, but left behind a story that remained buried for over a century.
This new album by Sol Gabetta, released by Sony Classical, is a tribute to Cristiani’s world. But more than that, it’s the result of deep research, collaboration, and historical imagination. Gabetta worked closely with scholars and archives to reconstruct Cristiani’s repertoire — not the canonical cello concertos by Beethoven or Brahms, but instead a vivid tapestry of salon music, arrangements, fantasies, and variations that were popular at the time: works by Servais, Batta, Offenbach, a late miniature by Rossini, and transcriptions of Schubert and Donizetti. Gabetta describes the project as a return to “where the cello’s bel canto voice truly begins.”
She’s joined by fortepianist Irina Zahharenkova, and backed by a chamber ensemble that includes Cappella Gabetta, a group reassembled especially for this recording. The sound world is evocative of the 19th century — lighter, intimate, and historically inspired, with Zahharenkova’s fortepiano providing a warm, period-appropriate foundation.
Cristiani was not a composer — instead, she performed the music of her peers, especially François Servais, whose brilliant fantasies offered technical fireworks with expressive intent. Gabetta herself studied Servais as a child and returned to his music here with renewed passion. “One hour of Servais is like going to the gym,” she told Gramophone. “It’s an incredible workout — and full of joy.” One track also features Une larme, a rare late miniature by Rossini, and another includes a world premiere recording of Alexander Batta’s fantasy on Guillaume Tell themes, arranged for three cellos — a work Cristiani herself performed in Leipzig. For this performance, Gabetta is joined by Victor Julien-Laferrière and Luca Magariello.
Though the album is steeped in history, its resonance is very contemporary. In the 20th century, figures like Jacqueline du Pré broke through as female cellists on the world stage. Today, many more have followed, including major international soloists such as Sol Gabetta herself. And a younger generation — from Anastasia Kobekina to Julia Hagen — is now forging its own path with boldness and originality. But Lise Cristiani was there first, bow in hand, defying norms, dazzling salons, and playing for soldiers on the edge of the Russian Empire.
This album doesn’t just remember her. It brings her voice back.
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