CD Solos

Release date: September 13, 2024

CD Edition.

Sony Music Masterworks announces a unique and far-reaching collaboration with the versatile composer, sought-after musical collaborator, and guitarist Bryce Dessner, who is also a founding member of the Grammy Award-winning rock band The National. With the newly signed collaboration, Sony Classical will publish Dessner's classical compositions, while sister label Milan Records continues to house some of his celebrated film scores. This innovative, tailored approach will give Dessner maximum artistic freedom to pursue these two essential strands of his creative output.

Dessner will debut on Sony Classical on August 23, 2024, with Solos, a collection presenting a series of unaccompanied instrumental works written by the composer in recent years. Selected from both his classical and soundtrack catalog, the works showcase not only Dessner's compositional talent but also the immense talent of his acclaimed collaborators, many of whom regularly work with him and are his friends. Soloists include cellist Anastasia Kobekina, violinist Pekka Kuusisto, pianist Katia Labèque, harpist Lavinia Meijer, violist Nadia Sirota, percussionist Colin Currie, and Bryce Dessner himself on guitar. Accompanying today's announcement and album pre-order is the release of the first single from Solos - "Lullaby for Jacques et Brune" - a piano lullaby written by Bryce Dessner for his godchildren.

Dessner says of these pieces: “Writing a solo piece for me is always a great challenge and a great joy, as you have the entire personality and talent of the performer plus the physicality and resonance of the solo instrument, a bit like a Shakespearean monologue. These solo pieces for violin, viola, cello, harp, percussion, guitar and piano represent many years of my compositional process. When I started composing, I mainly wrote solo pieces to perform myself, and I have always loved unaccompanied instrumental music, including Bach's solo lute and cello suites and John Dowland's Renaissance lute fantasies, which I used to play myself on classical guitar. These pieces of mine are often written like poems, where the musical language itself dictates the form and evolution of the piece, and they were often opportunities to explore more deeply my relationship with the instruments for which they were composed. They also represent in each case close collaborative relationships and friendships that I have been very fortunate to develop with the incredible musicians who perform them. Katia, Pekka, Anastasia, Nadia, Lavinia, and Colin are exceptional artists who brought so much of their incredible talent to these recordings.”