Sinfonietta Rīga and Jean-Guihen Queyras. Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto and Fauré Elegy

While enchanting audiences from the Philharmonie de Paris to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the charming French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras always finds time for Sinfonietta Rīga. Together with Latvian musicians Queyras has already thumbed through the scores of famous Viennese classics and works of avantgarde pioneers, now for the first time under the baton of Olari Elts the friends and partners in musical exploration turn to French Romanticism.

This diverse programme includes the exquisite Elegy by the master of harmonies, Gabriel Fauré, and the lyrical soundscapes of his teacher and close friend Camille Saint-Saëns. The magnificent Cello Concerto and his delightfully melodious early symphonies, inspired by Viennese Classicism, both belong to the golden classics of French music. In his turn, the multi-talented contemporary French composer Thierry Escaich, who is also known as the organist of the Notre-Dame de Paris, weaves Beethoven-esque vigour into his work.