Mozart de toute beauté : le grand retour de Jonathan Cohen

Cellist and harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen is one of the most accomplished and sought-after British musicians of his generation. A fervent promoter of chamber music, he has mastered and explored repertoires ranging from baroque opera to the classical symphony. Cohen gained widespread recognition as associate conductor of Les Arts Florissants and, from 2010, as founder and artistic director of the Arcangelo ensemble. He has worked with Les Violons du Roy since 2014 and became their musical director in 2018. He also serves as artistic director of the Tetbury Music Festival and Boston’s prestigious Handel and Haydn Society.

A much-in-demand guest conductor, Cohen has appeared on both sides of the Atlantic with numerous ensembles, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Throughout the 24-25 season, he returns to Kammerorchester Basel and directs performances of St Matthew Passion with both Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He returns to Glyndebourne Festival for a revival of Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel Saul. He leads both Handel and Haydn Society and Houston Symphony Orchestra in Messiah, and with Handel and Haydn he also conducts Haydn The Seasons, Mozart Requiem and Beethoven Mass in C.

In addition to his impressive discography of almost 30 works as director of Arcangelo, he has recorded three albums with Les Violons du Roy, all of which have garnered national and international acclaim. His album devoted to Handel and Glass with American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo earned Les Violons du Roy their first-ever Grammy nomination in 2019. Cohen has introduced several prestigious guest artists to audiences of Les Violons du Roy and has toured three times in Europe and North America with them.

A renowned figure in the world of baroque music, French soprano Sandrine Piau regularly performs with celebrated conductors such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Christophe Rousset, Gustav Lleonhardt, Ivor Bolton, Ton Koopman, René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Sandrine Piau embraces different roles on international stages. The roles she has previously performed include Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Morgana (Alcina) at the Opéra de Paris, Dalinda (Ariodante) at the Salzburg Festival, Alcina, Mélisande, Sandrina, (La Finta Giardiniera), Sœur Constance (Dialogue des Carmélites) at the Monnaie, Alcina and Dalinda (Ariodante) in Amsterdam, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Sœur Constance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and Despina (Cosi fan tutte) and Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at the Festival d’Aix en Provence.

As a celebrated recital singer of both French and German repertoire, Sandrine Piau performs with renowned accompanists including Jos van Immerseel, Roger Vignoles and Susan Manoff. She regularly gives recitals and has appeared in concert in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Munich, Zurich, and Salzburg, and recently in Hamburg for the opening of the Elbphilharmonie.

In recent years she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Covent Garden Festival, Musikverein, Salle Pleyel, Festival de Saint Denis, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Teatro Communale in both Florence and Bologna and with the world’s most prestigious orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sandrine Piau has an extensive discography, including four CDs of Handel and Mozart and two recitals albums: Apres un rêve and Evocations, which she recorded with renowned accompanist Susan Manoff, with whom she has a privileged relationship and performs regularly. Together they have performed in Europe, across America, in Japan and most recently at Wigmore Hall. Desperate Heroines, a stunning selection of Mozart’s arias recorded with the Orchestre du Mozarteum Salzburg and Ivor Bolton, has been a critically acclaimed recording.

Sandrine Piau now records exclusively for Alpha Classics and her first CD under this label, released in 2018, is a recital disc recorded with Susan Manoff entitled Chimère.The disc includes a selection of German Lieder, French Mélodies, and Art Songs.

The 2018/19 season saw her return to the Lincoln Centre with Les Arts Florissants, tour Europe with the Freiburger Barockorchester, her ‘Desperate Lovers’ tour of Europe with the Concert d’Astrée and her return to the Salzburg Festival with Alcina.

The 2019/20 season includes Les Arts Florissants’ 40th anniversary tour, a European Tour with Teodor Currentzis and a return to the Festival d'Aix en Provence for the creation Innocence by Kaija Saariaho.

Sandrine Piau was given the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2006 and was named “Lyrical Artist of the Year” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique award ceremony in 2009.