Cellist Beatriz Blanco and pianist Federico Bosco follow the success of their first Odradek album with 'Of Love and War', a sumptuous programme of music by Nadia Boulanger, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Webern, Hindemith and Faur, featuring mezzo-soprano Solenn' Lavanant-Linke.

'Of Love and War', partly inspired by Eduardo Galeano's novel 'Days and Nights of Love and War', draws parallels between the isolation and pent-up passions of wartime and the experiences of the current pandemic. Much of this repertoire was composed around the time of the First World War, but also embraces broader themes of beginnings and endings, night and day, love and loss.

Nadia Boulanger is celebrated as a teacher of great composers, but was a composer in her own right; her 'Three Pieces' occupy a similar soundworld to that of Debussy, whose Cello Sonata is at the heart of the programme, and Faur, whose song 'Les berceaux' we hear in an arrangement for cello and piano. There are works by Webern that show us 'before and after' his early lessons with Schoenberg: the 'Zwei Stucke fr Cello und Klavier' of 1899, written when Webern was only 16, and the 'Drei Kleine Stucke', Op. 11 and Cello Sonata, both dating from 1914. The album discovers a softer side to Hindemith in his richly Romantic 'Three Pieces', Op. 8, and the whole recital is framed by glorious songs by Strauss and Debussy, performed by Solenn' Lavanant-Linke.

Praise for Beatriz Blanco and Federico Bosco's ' mon ami', an album of music by Chopin & Franchomme on Odradek:

"Fine performances they round off the disc with Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante in C played with elegance and style." BBC Music Magazine

"Blanco and Bosco are an ideal match... Blanco's unforced, burnished tone is a joy to hear, underpinned by Bosco's quirky choice of an 1898 Pleyel double piano polished, understated music-making" Gramophone