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Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, who founded Music@Menlo in 2003, will leave the chamber music program in Atherton after the 2026 season. (Music@Menlo via Bay City News)<\/p>\nCellist David Finckel and\u00a0pianist Wu Han, a\u00a0performing\u00a0duo\u00a0since 1982, have a longstanding relationship with the Bay Area that includes\u00a0Finckel\u2019s\u00a0formative encounter with cello master\u00a0Mstislav Rostropovich in the mid-1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the \u201975-\u201976 season,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0not sure if it was the fall or winter, I\u00a0participated\u00a0in the Rostropovich master class at Hertz Hall in Berkeley.\u00a0If you go backstage at Hertz, on the wall\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a little montage of photos of him teaching that class,\u201d Finckel recalls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finckel\u00a0returns to Hertz Hall\u00a0on March 29\u00a0this year, appearing with\u00a0his wife Wu Han\u00a0in a\u00a0Cal Performances\u00a0program of\u00a0works by\u00a0Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel and Britten.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wu Han and Finckel met shortly after she arrived in the United States from Taiwan in 1981. Their relationship was friendly and professional, but it quickly developed into something more profound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started to play together people were like, \u2018Are you guys married?\u2019\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Wu Han, describing the\u00a0period\u00a0before they\u00a0wed\u00a0in 1985. \u201cThere\u2019e always been\u00a0chemistry without us even knowing it; romance and marriage came later. We became\u00a0very good\u00a0friends from playing and touring together, and\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0been mutual admiration from our musical interest, sharing the same experiences, opinions and recording opportunities, and playing side by side for the last 40 years.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a very special\u00a0thing when we play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This weekend\u2019s concert includes\u00a0Alexander\u00a0Siloti\u2019s\u00a0transcription of Bach\u2019s Adagio from the Toccata in C major for Organ for Cello and Piano; Bach\u2019s Sonata No. 1 in G major for Viola da\u00a0Gamba\u00a0and Harpsichord, Beethoven\u2019s Sonata No. 3 in A major for Cello and Piano,\u00a0Debussy\u2019s \u201cClaire de lune\u201d from the \u201cSuite bergamasque,\u201d Ravel\u2019s \u201cPi\u00e8ce\u00a0en\u00a0forme\u00a0de habanera\u201d and Britten\u2019s Cello Sonata in C, Op. 65.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wu Han, who cites\u00a0pianists Raymond Hanson, Rudolf\u00a0Serkin\u00a0and Lilian Kallir (Wu Han and Finckel\u00a0named\u00a0their daughter Lilian)\u00a0among\u00a0her key mentors, says the\u00a0concert\u00a0will take the audience on a journey through the evolution of sonatas for piano and cello.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program shows the two sides of Bach: the Adagio is grand, religious and incredibly beautiful, and then the G major Viola da\u00a0Gamba\u00a0Sonata was written for a public concert at the Zimmermann coffee house and is a secular work,\u201d she says,\u00a0referring to\u00a0Caf\u00e9 Zimmermann in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach\u2019s \u201cCoffee Cantata\u201d debuted. \u201cAnd then we finish the first half with the Beethoven, which is completely different.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second half of the concert moves to a more\u00a0contemporary sound, starting with\u00a0French music\u00a0by Debussy and Ravel.\u00a0Then it crosses\u00a0the English Channel for Britten\u2019s Cello Sonata, the first of five major\u00a0cello pieces\u00a0Britten\u00a0composed for Rostropovich. Britten,\u00a0at the piano,\u00a0and Rostropovich premiered the work in 1961 and famously recorded it together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBritten\u2019s Cello Sonata is five movements of incredibly inventive language and new cello technique,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s one movement where the cellist only plays pizzicato, there\u2019s perpetual motion in the last movement, and there\u2019s all kinds of cello tricks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharing the same range from the lowest to highest\u00a0notes, the cello and piano are highly compatible instruments for a duo.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love violin and piano music, but after a while when I listen to\u00a0it,\u00a0I begin to miss the low notes the cello plays, and there\u2019s a limit on how low you can play the violin,\u201d Finckel says. \u201cBut theoretically, there\u2019s no limit to how high you can play a cello, and we can go way up into the violin register.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wu Han says Finckel\u00a0with\u00a0his instrument\u00a0gets\u00a0the\u00a0most attention when the couple goes\u00a0on tour, and she admits to the instrument\u2019s allure, even for pianists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody who sees David says,\u00a0\u2019Oh, I love the cello,\u2019 and nobody who sees me as the pianist says they love the piano;\u00a0it\u2019s always the cello,\u201d she says. \u201cThe cello is in the human voice range and has a beautiful sound, and cellists are nice people. Think about it \u2014 Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Grieg, Brahms\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0all great composers and pianists, and they all wrote cello sonatas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, who founded Music@Menlo in 2003, will leave the chamber music program in Atherton after the 2026 season. (Music@Menlo via Bay City News)<\/p>\n
Finckel and Wu Han have collaborated on\u00a0many\u00a0other\u00a0musical\u00a0ventures.\u00a0In the\u00a0Bay Area, they founded, and\u00a0direct,\u00a0Music@Menlo,\u00a0a\u00a0chamber music festival and institute\u00a0at Menlo School in Atherton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe model we put forth in 2003 is still running well and is something that distinguishes it in the performing arts world,\u201d says Finckel of\u00a0Music@Menlo, which he and Wu Han will leave\u00a0following\u00a0the\u00a02026 season. \u201cMany organizations have felt they have to reinvent themselves, especially over the last 10 years when innovation became almost mandatory, otherwise people thought you were not making progress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The duo\u00a0\u2014\u00a0recipients of Musical America\u2019s prestigious Musicians of the Year Award\u00a0and\u00a0artistic directors since 2004 of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0look forward to\u00a0appearing again with\u00a0Cal Performances.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you return to a series, in this case at Cal Performances, you build a relationship with a community in a very deep, interesting way,\u201d Wu Han\u00a0says.\u00a0\u201cAudiences are invested in watching how we develop as a duo and what kind of statement we are going to make as musicians, and it feels so much like coming home to play for that audience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cal Performances presents cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han at 3 p.m. March 29 in Hertz Hall on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Tickets are $85-$93 at\u00a0calperformances.org.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n The post David Finckel, Wu Han\u00a0explore evolution of\u00a0cello and piano in\u00a0Cal Performances concert<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cellist David Finckel and\u00a0pianist Wu Han, a\u00a0performing\u00a0duo\u00a0since 1982, have a longstanding relationship with the Bay Area that includes\u00a0Finckel\u2019s\u00a0formative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-240310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}