When NMSU violin professor Simon Gollo was still a student in Switzerland, he was introduced to a work by the French Romantic composer Ernest Chausson, a concerto scored for the unusual combination of violin, piano, and string quartet. Now, for his debut recording that has just been released, Gollo chose the massive and technically challenging work to be the centerpiece of the cd. “I could say that I grew up artistically with this piece,” he told Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin on this Zoom-recorded interview from their homes. He performed it several times, both in the string quartet and as the soloist, before embarking on the recording project.
Gollo spent a few sleepless nights waiting to hear if the acclaimed pianist John Novacek would record with him, and once he agreed, they assembled a string quartet made up of violinists Benjamin Sung, Ingrid Gerling, violist Randolph Kelly and cellist Maki Kubota for the concerto. Soprano Mariola Cantarero also performs Chausson’s “Chanson Perpetuelle” on the cd with the instrumentalists. “It’s a dream,” he said, to perform with these musicians, and to record the cd in the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Spain – a “real hall with wonderful acoustics.” Listen here to learn more about Chausson and the making of this cd.
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