Pablo Ferrández - Moonlight Variations (CD)

Star cellist Pablo Ferrández has realized a twenty-year dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations on his latest album for Sony Classical, combining the spirited work with melancholy nocturnes to create Moonlight Variations - an album he describes as "night followed by day."

The night-time has long fascinated Ferrández. On his new album, he assembles eleven handpicked gems by composers from Antonín Dvořák to Manuel Ponce that speak of the heighted emotional intimacy of the dark hours. The cellist has arranged songs, piano nocturnes, violin works and an opera aria. "I feel more creative at night,’ says the cellist. ‘I’m not alone in that. So many composers have written special music connected to this time. They all felt a difference in the world once the sun had gone down."

Pablo Ferrández (cello)
Julien Quentin (piano)
Martin Fröst (conductor)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Tracklist:
Chopin: Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2
Chopin: Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor, Op. post.
Debussy: Beau Soir
Liszt: Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major)
Ponce, M: Estrellita
Schubert: Nacht und Träume, D827
Tchaikovsky: Nocturne, Op. 19 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33