After Dreams and the Bach Suites, both warmly welcomed by critics and audiences alike, Ophélie Gaillard's new album features a mise en abyme of Robert Schumann's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, and Liszt's complete music for cello and piano.

The juxtaposition of these two sensitive worlds offers a program where passion and a certain vision of the mystery of life intertwine in a spellbinding climate.

For Schumann's Concerto, she is accompanied by the National Radio Orchestra of Romania (partners of such luminaries as Yehudi Menuhin, David Oïstrakh, Martha Argerich and Mstsislaw Rostropovitch), conducted by the young Tiberiu Soare (Angela Gheorghiu's favorite conductor).

Schumann, who was a cellist for a time, reaches an expressive maturity in this work that enables him to bring out the cello's formidable warm, sensual sound qualities, and weaves around the instrument a setting of unequalled depth.

Ophélie Gaillard is joined in the second half by the wonderful (if discreet) pianist Delphine Bardin (First Prize Clara Haskil Competition). These mature pieces bear witness to Liszt's taste for defying convention and daring harmonies that increasingly break free from tonality (Liszt confided to a stunned Vincent d'Indy that he wanted to transgress it). These pieces also plunge us into surprising moods, sometimes haunting, sometimes very dark, a universe of emotional subtleties that are a must-discover.

The juxtaposition of these two parts once again demonstrates the eclectic and aesthetic choices that have marked Ophélie Gaillard's career since her debut.