Venice

Cellist Anastasia Kobekina dispatches a love letter to Venice in the form of this beguiling kaleidoscope of music. Each piece, whether or not directly connected with the Italian city, holds for her a certain reminiscence—whether of its winding streets, glittering waterways or of simply the way it makes her feel. Much of Kobekina’s album consists of 17th- and 18th-century music composed in Venice by the likes of Vivaldi and Monteverdi, performed with real verve—but she also punctuates her programme with unexpected delights. Valentin Silvestrov’s Abendserenade takes her to the dying light in St Mark’s Square; Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams’ “Emerald and Stone” conjures images of Venice’s nebbia, a thick fog that cloaks the city in winter months. Elsewhere, its shores are visited by John Dowland, its characters imagined by Nino Rota, and its gondolas brought to rest by Fauré’s wistful lullaby. Kobekina signs off in the most personal way possible—with a beautiful set of variations on Monteverdi’s “Ariadne’s Lament” composed by her father Vladimir Kobekin.