Argentine star cellist Sol Gabetta takes the listener with her on a meditative musical journey on her new album "Prayer". Accompanied by the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Orchestre National de Lyon, she has recorded a selection of Classical music inspired by Jewish melodies. It was Ernest Bloch's (1880-1959) piece "Prayer" that first gave Sol Gabetta the idea for this album: "I often played 'Prayer' as an encore in concert, and could feel that many people in the audience were greatly moved by it. This is music that is both sensual and reflective." In addition to the three-part cycle "From Jewish Life", of which "Prayer" is the first movement, Gabetta's CD recital includes Bloch's "Meditation hebräique", "Nigun", and the famous "Schelomo" for cello and orchestra. The programme is delightfully rounded off by four songs Gabetta has chosen from Dmitri Shostakovich's cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry" and a Catalan folk song full of yearning by the famous cellist Pablo Casals.

Sol Gabetta recorded "Prayer" together with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. In Bloch's "Schelomo" she is accompanied by the Orchestre National de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin; it was with this conductor that she originally played the work, which dates from 1916. Gabetta says: "This is a sweeping, large-scale cello concerto in which the cello takes the role of King Solomon".

The Jewish pieces by Bloch with their religious undertones contrast with folk songs from the pen of Shostakovich, which he published in 1948 under the title "From Jewish Folk Poetry". From the total of 11 songs, Sol Gabetta chose four for her recital which were then specially arranged for cello and string orchestra by Mikhail Bronner. The original poems that Shostakovich set to music tell of the hardships of Jewish life in tsarist Russian. The Catalan folk song "Song of the Birds" is a tale of human longing. The Spanish cellist Pablo Casals arranged it for his instrument, and from 1939 onwards he used it to open many of the concerts he gave in exile. Gabetta has recorded the piece together with the cello ensemble of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.