A Tribute To Two Giants of The Cello

Deutsche Grammophon cello star Camille Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal pay tribute to two major figures of her instrument - Pablo Casals and Auguste Franchomme - for whom Chopin wrote one of a handful of works not for the piano. What makes her beautifully lyrical program even more special is that she will play it on the Feuermann Stradivarius, the very instrument on which Franchomme once played. DG will release Ms. Thomas’ new Chopin Project recording this Spring.

"Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart."
— Pablo Casals

This program is a tribute to two great cellists of the past: Pablo Casals and Auguste Franchomme, both still alive in our memories through the song of their cellos, a mirror of the human voice and soul.
Casals is the start of the journey. His "Song of the birds", a traditional Catalan carol that he played all his lifetime, is like a symbol of his greatness. At the end of his life, performed it at the United Nations when he received the UN Peace Medal. Those were his words before he began playing:

‘I have not played the cello in public for many years, but I feel that the time has come to play again. I am going to play a melody from Catalan folklore: El cant dels ocells - The Song of the Birds. Birds sing when they are in the sky, they sing: “Peace, Peace, Peace”, and it is a melody that Bach, Beethoven and all the greats would have admired and loved. What is more, it is born in the soul of my people, Catalonia.’

Casals is known as the cellist who rediscovered the cello bible, the Bach Suites and Bach is for me always associated with his name. He recorded the Bach Air transcribed for cello and piano by the famous German cellist Julius Klengel for Columbia Records in 1920. And David Popper, a cello virtuoso from Bohemia, composed many pieces for our instrument that Casals often played as encores on his concerts.

The other central person of this musical journey is the cellist Auguste-Joseph Franchomme. At the twilight of his life Frederic Chopin composed his sonata for cello and piano and dedicated it to his dear friend cellist Auguste-Joseph. This is the last work to be published during his lifetime.

The day before his death Chopin asked to hear it and Franchomme, at his bedside in a salon in the Place Vendôme, played the second and third movements ... Like the testament of a life that ends in full swing, each note of the sonata reflects the immense human and artistic friendship that binds the two men. Through music, transparent separation between their hearts and the heart of the world, they become immortal.

This eternity still vibrates today through Auguste Franchomme's instrument, a Stradivarius cello from 1730 today known under the name of Stradivarius Feuermann… a mythical cello that I have had the immense honor to play for some years.

The very last letter of Chopin was addressed to Franchomme to whom he confided: "my favorite instrument is the cello". He will compose outside the piano almost only for this instrument and will even say that he finds no objection to his pieces for solo piano being transcribed for other instruments, as long as it is arranged with taste. Franchomme did not need to be asked and it is the work of all these legendary musicians that I am happy to bring to life in this program.