SFP to Introduce Cellist with Second Gift Concert

Camille Thomas and Julien Brocal (photograph by Jourdain-Kabycheva Polina, from the SFP Web page for purchasing tickets)

Readers may recall that, this past February, San Francisco Performances (SFP) presented its annual Gift Concert with chamber music played by the piano trio of pianist Juho Pohjonen, Jonathan Swensen on cello, and violinist Stephen Waarts. It turns out that next week there will be a second Gift Concert, and this one will introduce the young Franco-Belgian cellist Camille Thomas to the Bay Area. She will be accompanied at the piano by Julien Brocal, who will also be making his Bay Area debut.

Most of the selections on the program will be taken from The Chopin Project, a three-CD Deutsche Grammophon album, which was released in June of last year. The first “chapter” of this project is entitled “The Franchomme Legacy,” which explores the relationships between Frédéric Chopin and the cellist Auguste Franchomme. The results of that relationship will be presented on the program by Franchomme’s arrangements by the fifteenth of the Opus 28 cycle of piano preludes, familiarly known as the “Raindrop” prelude, and the second of the Opus 34 waltzes, composed in the key of A minor. To account for the second “chapter,” “Complete Chamber Music,” the duo will play the composer’s Opus 65 sonata in G minor. This portion of the program will also include Mischa Maisky’s arrangement for the Opus posthumous Nocturne in B minor; and the program will begin with the fourth (in the key of E minor) of the 24 Opus 28 preludes, presumably given a solo performance by Brocal.

The Chopin selections will be followed by two original compositions by Franchomme. The first of these will be the first of his Opus 15 nocturnes. It will be followed by the “Air Russe Varié,” the second work in the Opus 32 set. The final work on the program will be the “Hungarian Rhapsody” by David Popper, his Opus 68.

Like the first Gift Concert, subscribers and donors will be given tickets at no charge. However, also as was previously the case, tickets for all others are now available for purchase at the price of $45. They may be purchased through an SFP secure Web page. Single tickets may also be purchased by calling 415-392-2545. Tickets can also be purchased at the door as available, and these will include rush tickets for students at a 50% discount and seniors for a discount of 20%.