Foreshadowing the year of Proust in 2022 (the writer, in fragile health, died of an illness in 1922), the cellist Steven Isserlis, the most Francophile of English musicians, wished to offer his ever faithful and passionate audience a Proustian anthology on his instrument. An essential addition to the Saint-Saëns year which has just begun!

Classics, such as the famous cello sonata by Saint-Saëns, the no less famous violin sonata by Franck (arranged here for cello), or the Romance and Elégie by Gabriel Fauré, will stand alongside works that the writer loved, or would have loved, to hear, but which are not yet part of the pantheon of chamber music made in Paris: the Variations chantantes sur un air ancien by Reynaldo Hahn, the Lamento from Duparc's sonata, and a Recitatif and Chant by Augusta Holmès arranged by the famous English soloist.

The recording will be released next February by BIS Records, an occasion for which Steven Isserlis shares with us, in an exclusive interview, his encyclopedic culture and his authentic vision of French music during In Search of Lost Time.