Mozart de toute beauté : le grand retour de Jonathan Cohen

Jonathan Cohen has forged a remarkable career as a conductor, cellist and keyboardist. Well known for his passion and commitment to chamber music Jonathan is equally at home in such diverse activities as baroque opera and the classical symphonic repertoire. He is Artistic Director of Arcangelo, Music Director of Les Violons du Roy, Artistic Director of Tetbury Festival and Artistic Partner of St Paul Chamber Orchestra. From the 2023-2024 season, he will be the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society.

The 22-23 season sees Jonathan returning to the USA to conduct the Handel and Haydn Society and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and his projects with Les Violons du Roy include Handel’s Alcina and programmes with Carolyn Sampson and Philippe Jaroussky. He conducts Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonia de Galicia and Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, as well as projects with Arcangelo including Handel’s Theodora.

Jonathan founded Arcangelo in 2010, who strive to perform high quality and specially created projects. He has toured with them to exceptional halls and festivals including Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Berlin, Kölner Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall New York. They made their Proms debut at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2016 and returned to the Proms in 2018 (Theodora) and 2021 (St Matthew Passion).

Arcangelo is busy and much in demand in the recording studio, partnering with fine soloists such as Iestyn Davies (its disc Arias for Guadagni won the Recital Category at the 2012 Gramophone Awards and its recording of Bach cantatas was best Baroque Vocal recording at the 2017 Gramophone Awards), Anna Prohaska, and Christopher Purves for Hyperion Records. Its recording CPE Bach Cello Concertos with Nicolas Altstaedt won the BBC Music Magazine Awards Concerto category in 2017, and its Buxtehude Trio Sonatas, Op.1 recording for Alpha Classics was nominated for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Arcangelo’s recent recordings include Handel’s Brockes-Passion, Buxtehude Trio Sonatas Op. 2 and a further disc of Bach Cantatas with Iestyn Davies.

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.