Most concert music is for a piano and some other instrument that treats the piano as accompaniment. The theme of this week’s Cliburn at the Kimbell concert is music for cello and piano that regards the keyboard instrument as an equal partner. This is likely why the foundation is billing both Camille Thomas and Roman Rabinovich for their duo recital on Thursday.
The program includes Brahms’ First Cello Sonata, in which the composer specifically noted that the piano was to be an equal partner in the music. (Brahms was known as an accomplished pianist, but relatively few people knew that he was also skilled on the cello.) There’s also a set of variations by Beethoven and a duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
After a German first half, the program switches to French in its second half. Messiaen’s “Louange à l’Eternité de Jésus” is a movement from his Quartet for the End of Time, a work written while the composer was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. After this comes the comparatively light Franck Cello Sonata, which has been arranged for numerous other instruments and proceeds from ambiguous beginnings into a final movement of unmistakable triumph.
Camille Thomas and Roman Rabinovich perform at 7:30pm Thu at the Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd, FW. Tickets are $25-65. Call 817-332-8451.
