The “Cappella Gabetta” enters the stage. The impeccable ensemble The string section consists of six violins, two violas, a double bass and a cello and is accompanied by a pianist.
The lights are dimmed, the audience makes themselves comfortable in their seats, they clear their throats, the anticipation grows. The first piano notes can be heard. The concert begins, the Sol Gabetta designed in honor of cellist Lise Cristianibut the protagonist is missing.
You can feel the intrigue in the audience. When is Gabetta coming? What will your appearance be like on site? After a minute, the artist provides all the answers. She enters the darkness, cello in hand, discreetly, but aware with every step that all eyes are on her. His wide, long black skirt with several layers of tulle is a subtle allusion to women’s clothing from two centuries ago. Sol Gabetta sits on the stool located on a podium in the middle of the stage and plays the piece “Une larme” by Gioachino Rossini together with the pianist.
“I have to imagine how I want to start the concert because it’s a very powerful moment,” the cellist tells DW. While colleagues and friends recommended he start with an overture, Sol Gabetta “wanted it more dramatic, more like the life of Lise Cristiani.” In fact, this tear from Rossini has something of tragedy and lament about it. Gabetta’s intense interpretation with clear sound and technical perfection is touching from the first note.
Two pioneers separated by two centuries
Lise Cristiani was born in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century. She was the first professional cellist at a time when it was extremely frowned upon for a woman to play an instrument that had to be held between her legs.
But talent was on Cristiani’s side. He gave concerts all over Europe and even traveled to the most remote places in Russia, with the difficulties that such an odyssey entailed at the time. Cristiani died young, just 27 years old. But in her short life she not only impressed audiences, but also inspired composers such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who composed more than one piece for her.
For several years, Sol Gabetta and a team of experts recovered lost material, reconstructed scores and told the story of a woman who has long accompanied the Argentine cellist. “A bit like a ghost,” Gabetta reflects in a documentary on the public television station ARTE, which describes this process of meticulous investigation.
Like Cristiani, Sol Gabetta is also a pioneer and dares to break new ground. “The musician has to swim a little against the tide,” says Gabetta, who is constantly looking for innovation and challenging herself, her colleagues and the audience to step out of her comfort zone.
This is noticeable in the program about Lise Cristiani, which premiered in Brussels on December 6, 2025 and has already been presented in Hamburg, Munich and Cologne, among others. It is a real production with subtle but effective lighting effects. The musicians of the “Cappella Gabetta” follow this innovative spirit, for example when the cellist approaches Sol at one point and whistles the four notes of the main melody that she and the ensemble are playing.
Or when a violinist puts her instrument aside to play a tambourine. Little details like these are fascinating because “they break the mold,” says Gabetta, adding: “When you give musicians the opportunity to do something different and get out of their comfort zone, they are very happy.”
“Technically speaking, I’m in a very strong phase”
Gabetta had been thinking about the idea of making a show about Lise Cristiani for years. But finding the ideal time was difficult: “I was in the middle of my career. I had to play with the biggest orchestras, I fought for every concert. A project like this is a full-time contradiction.”
But every now and then Lise’s “ghost” reappeared in Sol’s life. And little by little the project took shape. The release was scheduled for December 2027, which would mark the 200th anniversary of Cristiani’s birth. “I visualized it in five years: three years of study and two years of preparation,” recalls the artist.
But in mid-2024, in the middle of the research process, it turned out that the French cellist had already been born two years earlier, in 1825.
The Argentine cellist plunged into the adventure because “I’m in a very strong moment technically. If I don’t do it now, I won’t do it again. Ten years later, I couldn’t imagine doing it. It’s a very difficult program. I think it was the most difficult project I’ve done in my entire life.”
Intuition and structure
Sol Gabetta defines herself as someone with great intuition. But he believes it is important to have a clear structure so that “freedom reigns” and his innate intuition can flow.
Another key to her success was always reaching out to artists who were of a higher level than her. “It’s easier to surround yourself with less capable people, but that doesn’t make you grow.” Although she admits that she initially found it difficult to feel comfortable around brilliant people: “I felt like I was a zero to the left.” Over time, he began to find his place, and today he says, “Mediocrity bores me, it makes me sick, it makes me allergic.”
Family as an absolute priority
“For me, you experience the moment of greatest freedom on stage. It’s great,” says Sol Gabetta, who can look back on a twenty-year international career at the highest level.
When she became a mother eight years ago, she discovered a different passion and her priorities changed. He now adapts his international tours to his son’s school calendar and has reduced the number of concerts in order to achieve a balance between work and family life.
What’s left for her to do is take her son to learn more about his mother’s roots. Although he has never been there, the little boy is very interested in Argentina and feels just as Argentine as he is French, his other nationality and that of his father.
Sol Gabetta, who exudes simplicity and friendliness in an interview with DW, enjoys living in Europe, but regrets “the great individualism that prevails here.” The artist is grateful that she had “the best childhood she could have had” in Argentina and is convinced that it taught her to move much better in Europe.
(MS)
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