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Migration

18 July — 6 September 2025

Cycle «Change III» 2023 — 2025

Yibai Chen

Saturday, 10 August 2024, Gstaad Chapel

Chamber Music

Saturday, 10 August 2024
10.30 am, Gstaad Chapel

In 2022, Yibai Chen was honoured with the 2nd prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Making his debut in Gstaad, the cellist is diving into extraordinary repertoire: Beethoven’s “middle” Sonata No. 3 and the only Cello Sonata crafted 127 years after by the young Dmitri Shostakovich. Shostakovich continually refined the piece throughout his lifetime – only seeing its final version published in 1987, a dozen years after his passing. The composition and its transformative evolution beautifully resonate with the topic of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy 2024 (“Transformation”). To intertwine these two musical pieces, Yibai Chen takes a voyage into the realm of Hebrew traditions, as captured by the Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch: five small treasures brimming with depth and emotion, collectively titled “From Jewish Life”.

Yibai Chen, Cello
2nd Prize Queen Elisabeth Competition Brussels 2022
Boyang Shi, Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) 
Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 6925'
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) 
“From Jewish Life”, suite for cello and piano, B. 54 (extracts)10'
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1976) 
Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 4030'
 70'
CHF 30