Sophie Cashell, the winner of this year’s BBC talent show Classical Star, launches her recording career with ‘Debut’. This piano recital disc will be available through Universal Classics and Jazz (UCJ), the UK’s leading classical label.
The recital comprises some of Sophie’s favourite piano music, pieces that have been influential in her career so far. Sophie, currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music, won over the Classical Star judges (Charles Hazelwood, Jason Lai, Chi-Chi Nwanoku and Steve Abbott) with an impressive performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 2.
The album was recorded in the Théâtre St Bonnet, Bourges, France, a theatre built just two years ago in an authentic 19th Century salon style similar to those where Chopin and Liszt would have played. The Gothic cathedral in Bourges provided Sophie with further inspiration, hence the choice of Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie which appears on the disc.
Gramophone Magazine
