Renaud & Gautier Capuçon, Adrian Brendel, Lionel Cottet, Amanda Forsyth, Clemens Hagen, Mischa Maisky, István Várdai, Kyril Zlotnikov, Pretty Yende and Kirill Gerstein play Villa-Lobos, Nesbit, Shostakovich

The Verbier Festival is keen on gathering on stage world renowned soloists and have them play together chamber music works. Groups of artists that you will never have the opportunity to see somewhere else, and this is why it is called "exclusive."

2014 is all about Brazil. The most famous composer of the country will be honored at the Verbier Festival with the Bacchianas Brasilieras No. 5, for soprano and eight cellos, a true mix between the Brazilian folk music and Bach's style. The eight cellos of Brendel, Capuçon, Cottet, Forsyth, Hagen, Maisky, Vardai and Zlotnikov will then play a Verbier Festival commission: To Dance on Sands.

Last but not least, we will hear an arrangement for trio with piano and percussions by Viktor Derevianko, of the Symphony No. 15 in A Major by Dimitri Shostakovich, the composer's last symphony, written in 1971. Many modern percussion techniques like the use of wood-blocks and castanets are used in this work.

To perform these works, musicians of excellence were invited, most of them very familiar with Verbier, like the Capuçon brothers, Mischa Maisky, and Adrian Brendel.

Picture: © Aline Paley.