Pablo Ferrández
Biography
Prizewinner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition and SONY Classical exclusive artist, Pablo Ferrández is hailed as a “new cello genius” (Le Figaro). A captivating performer, “Ferrández has the lot: technique, mettle, spirit, authority as a soloist, expressivity and charm” (El Pais). He has turned into a cello phenomenon and one of the most in-demand instrumentalists of his generation.
His debut album under SONY Classical, “Reflections”, released in 2021, was highly acclaimed by the critics and praised with the Opus Klassik Award. In Fall 2022 Pablo Ferrández released his second album, which comprised the Brahms Double Concerto, performed with Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Czech Philharmonic under M.Honeck, as well as Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio, performed with Ms. Mutter and Lambert Orkis, also receiving rave reviews.
Recent highlights included appearances with LA Philharmonic at Hollywood Bowl, Czech Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Oslo Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Bayersichen Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Konzerthaus Orchester, Tonkuenslter Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Israel Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic. Ferrández toured last season with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the London Philharmonic under Ed Gardner, with Munich Philharmonic under Myung-whun Chung, and with the Antwerp Symphony under Elim Chan. He is also frequently invited to international renown festivals such as Verbier, Salzburg, Dresden, Sion, Dvorak Prague Festival, Grant Park and Jerusalem, among others.
The 23/24 season brings the debut at the David Geffen Hall in New York with the Orquesta del Teatro Real, and also with the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Tonhalle Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liege, Stavanger Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dusseldorf Symphony,HR-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra National de France and Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. Ferrández will also return to the LA Philharmonic, performing Brahms Double Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter under G. Dudamel, and will tour with the Czech Philharmonic under S. Bychkov in Japan and Europe, performing Dvorak Cello Concerto.
Born in Madrid in 1991, in a family of musicians, Pablo Ferrández joined the prestigious Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía when he was 13 to study with Natalia Shakhovskaya. After that he completed his studies at the Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson and became scholar of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.
Mr. Ferrández plays the Stradivarius “Archinto” 1689, on a generous life-long loan from a member of the Stretton Society.
Current album
Reflections
Artists Pablo FerrándezRelease Date: 03/26/2021
One of the most charismatic and exciting talents of his generation, Tchaikovsky Prize-winning Spanish cellist Pablo Ferrández has been hailed across the globe for his “pop-idol magnetism, superb technique and exhilarating musicality” (LA Times), as a performer who “has everything: technique, mettle, spirit … and charm” (El País). He has quickly built a reputation as a performer both hugely admired by fellow musicians, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gidon Kremer among them and loved by audiences, also on social media, where Ferrández’s charm and immediacy of his performances and personality reaches an audience of millions.
Ferrández’s debut album on Sony Classical, “Reflections,” provides a perfect introduction to this exceptional artist: With a romantic spirit, it reflects his musical roots and unexpected parallels in the music of Russia and Spain at the start of the 20th century. With Rachmaninov and his Spanish contemporaries Casals, Granados and De Falla it presents an evocative mixture of nostalgia, melodic warmth including Rachmaninov’s ardently melodic Cello Sonata and his haunting ‘Vocalise’, De Falla’s touching lullaby ‘Nana’ and Granados’ ‘Oriental’ from his ‘Danzas españolas’.
Pablo Ferrández was born into a musical family in 1991 and christened after Pablo “Pau” Casals – the iconic cellist and one of the most influential classical musicians Spain has ever produced. He has always felt an affinity with Russia, since he started his studies, aged 13, with the legendary Natalia Shakhovskaya (1925–2017), a former pupil of Rostropovich, at the Reina Sofia Music School in his native Madrid. “She was an incredible musician and human being, ”he recalls, “and she made me love and understand the language of Russian music.”
‘Reflections’ therefore represents both the music of Ferrández homeland and the music of the country that would become so important to him: “I wanted to record pieces I can see myself in, that reflect something of me and my roots. It contains some of the most beautiful and touching music I know”. Such a personal project needed a well-chosen partner, and Ferrández found the ideal pianist in Denis Kozhukhin. Their friendship dates back to their studies at the Reina Sofía Music School.
Central to the programme is Rachmaninov’s ardently melodic Cello Sonata, composed in 1901.
The discovery that Casals and Rachmaninov had performed the sonata together inspired Ferrández to build his programme to highlight further musical parallels and reflections between Spain and Russia. The album features cello and piano arrangements of three shorter Rachmaninov works (including the haunting Vocalise), plus favourite shorter works by De Falla and Granados, two key figures of Spanish music in the early 20th century, and contemporaries of Rachmaninov and Casals. Ferrández pays tribute to his great musical predecessor with the final track of the album: Casals’s famous arrangement of the Catalan Christmas song, "El cant dels ocells" (The Song of the Birds).
