onceived by Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Beginning with Monteverdi is an evening's program for cellos, weaving together in a most original manner Monteverdi duos (transcribed for two cellos and continuum by SWA) from Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, The Coronation of Poppea and madrigals, with contemporary works for cello solo by Berio, Kurtag Dutilleux and Dusapin.

		Monteverdi		Duo Serafim
		Kurtag		Pilinszky Janos: Gérard de Nerval op 5b.
		Berio		Les mots sont allés (The words went ...)
		Monteverdi		Ohime dovíe il mio ben 1ère partie
		Dusapin		Immer
		Monteverdi		Ohime dovíe il mio ben 2ème et 4ème parties
		Dusapin		Invece
		Monteverdi		Non vedro mai le stelle
		Dutilleux		Trois strophes sur le nom de Sacher
		Monteverdi		Chiome d'oro
		Monteverdi		Pur ti miro

Intersections of styles, intersections of types of writing, intersections of texts, of actual experiences, emotions, artistic experiences : this cd wished for and elaborated by Sonia Wieder-Atherton goes beyond the framework of interpreting so-called contemporary music. It goes beyond the existing categories of discographic means. It is a true intertwining among dimensions that cannot be separated. And, more than an interpretation, it is the oral writing of this performer who offers the cello, that 'young solo instrument', a voice unto itself, an autonomy of language, expression and of complicity with a given text.
It suffices to trust her own sense of listening to understand the passage from one text to another, from one voice to another, from one fabric to another. How Kurtag (Pilinsky Janos : Gérard de Nerval) prepares us for Berio (Les mots sont allés); how Berio, in turn, protracts into Dusapin (Immer and Invece); how Dusapin extends his hand to Donatoni (Lame). An unusual pathway that yet another voice, that of Monteverdi, illuminates in an athwart manner, rendering it both timeless and terribly necessary. And thus, yesterday's lamento, the states contained in Monteverdi's Duos adapted for two cellos, are possessed by scores that are so close to us, so contemporary, and make their own way among them 'like one long and unique breath,' as Sonia Wieder-Atherton has written, and help make their distant origins resonate.
Danièle Cohen-Levinas

A friend pointed out to me one day : actually, many of your artistic choices are linked to your personal history. I believe he was right and this record as well is born of this history. Born of my exploration of Monteverdi's music, and in particular, my discovery of his duos. Duos whose harmonic modernity, sense of narration and of drama, completely overwhelmed me. I wanted to hear two cellos sing these lines, these harmonic shifts, these lamentos, and these nearly psalmodic passages. I immediately began working on transcribing, adapting these works. In some inexplicable and mysterious manner, this music then began resonating within me with a totally different universe, that of certain contemporary works. Works that have been part of my world for a long time and that, for me, already had a strong yet indefinable link between them. Could it be that what connects these so very different styles, what connects them and gives them such an emotional charge, is that at the source of each, there is a certain sensation of breath becoming voice or even, at times, speech (the words have gone away) ? Perhaps. And perhaps it is the same for Monteverdi, regardless of his four centuries of distance, which enables him to resonate with these works of contemporary music. The fact remains that I began to perceive that a journey from one work to another, from one universe to another, was being created. A journey like one long and unique breath Sonia Wieder-Atherton