First Day Laura Metcalf & Matei Varga

• 1 Graciela y Buenos Aires 07:42
• 2 Variations on a Slovak Folksong, H. 378 10:09
• 3 Phantasie (version for cello and piano) 07:05
• 4 Pampeana No. 2, Op. 21 10:04
• 5 Cello Sonata in F Minor, Op. 26, No. 1 09:08
• 6 Hard-Knock Stomp (version for cello) 02:52
• 7 Pieces de viole, Book 2, Suite No. 1 in D Minor: Pieces de viole, Book 2: Les folies d'Espagne (arr. for cello and piano) 08:47
• 8 Leocadia, FP 106: Les chemins de l'amour (arr. for cello and piano) 03:23
• Total Runtime 59:10

Info for First Day

Cellist Laura Metcalf, noted for her "gorgeous cello legatos" (Washington Post) and her “sensitive, melodic touch” (BlogCritics Magazine) enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. She is the cellist of acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5 who won the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and has performed sold-out concerts at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center and many other venues worldwide. Sybarite5 made its Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2012, and their album Disturb the Silence recently reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Charts. In 2011 Laura was appointed to the cello-percussion quartet Break of Reality, with whom she has toured extensively. Laura also performs regularly as a solo recitalist; First Day is Laura’s debut album!

Pianist Matei Varga’s artistry has garnered superlative reviews from critics around the world, who have found his performances “magical” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), as well as “colorful, vivacious [and] engaging” (Le Diapason). A top prizewinner at the Maria Canals and George Enescu piano competitions, Mr. Varga has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in many of the world’s leading concert halls, among them Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Konzerthaus (Berlin), the Auditorium du Louvre and Salle Gaveau (Paris). He is a graduate of Mannes College of Music, where he studied with Pavlina Dokovska.

First Day represents many firsts, beginnings and youthful sentiments. The title is taken from the phrase "paths of the first day" from the final track on the album, “Les chemins de l'amour" by Francis Poulenc. The pianist Matei Varga was one of Laura’s first friends and musical partners when they both moved to New York City in 2004. They played together a great deal in those early years, and after a decade of pursuing independent musical projects, were thrilled to collaborate again for this recording. The eight works on this album are ones to which both feel deeply connected, and which they believe complement each other to form a whole that is both exuberant and reflective

„The title First Day, in the words of the young cellist Laura Metcalf, refers to how "[t]his album represents many firsts, beginnings, and youthful sentiments" for Metcalf and her pianist collaborator, Matei Varga. It's a fair summary of the album's sunny, energetic mood, and it points to Metcalf's personal connections with a couple of the composers on the program. The program is significant, however, in a deeper and more innovative way: what Metcalf offers is a set of works deeply informed by popular music without being "crossover." She draws links among tango and Argentine creole music, Eastern European nationalism, contemporary North American rock, and the French Baroque, making these all fit together in a way no one has before. The music never gets too heavy or too light, and Metcalf's enthusiastic, but perfectly controlled, tone in the weightiest work on the program, George Enescu's Cello Sonata in F minor, is worth sampling in itself (track 8). Her insistence that the works by composers she knows (Caleb Burhans and Dan Visconti) belongs alongside the national traditions of the early 20th century represents a way forward for classical music, and when she breaks into a little Poulenc song at the end, the listener is likely to have to be restrained from taking off into the stratosphere. Superb sound from Sono Luminus, one of the few American labels playing in the engineering big leagues, is a bonus.“ (James Manheim, AMG)

Laura Metcalf, cello
Matei Varga, piano

Laura Metcalf
praised for her "gorgeous cello legatos" (Washington Post) and her “sensitive, melodic touch” (BlogCritics Magazine) is known for her compelling solo and chamber music performances worldwide and in her home of New York City. She is the cellist of the acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5, who won the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and has performed sold-out concerts at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center and many other venues worldwide. Sybarite5 made its Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2012, and their album Disturb the Silence recently reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Charts. In 2011 Laura was appointed to the cello-percussion quartet Break of Reality, also with whom she has toured extensively.

Matei Varga
artistry has garnered superlative reviews from critics around the world, who have found his performances “magical” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), as well as “colorful, vivacious [and] engaging” (Le Diapason). A top prizewinner at the Maria Canals and George Enescu piano competitions, Mr. Varga has appeared as a soloist and recitalist in many of the world’s leading concert halls, among them Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Konzerthaus (Berlin), the Auditorium du Louvre and Salle Gaveau (Paris). He is a graduate of Mannes College of Music, where he studied with Pavlina Dokovska.

Booklet for First Day