Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, a performing duo since 1982, have a longstanding relationship with the Bay Area that includes Finckel’s formative encounter with cello master Mstislav Rostropovich in the mid-1970s.
“In the ’75-’76 season, I’m not sure if it was the fall or winter, I participated in the Rostropovich master class at Hertz Hall in Berkeley. If you go backstage at Hertz, on the wall there’s a little montage of photos of him teaching that class,” Finckel recalls.
Finckel returns to Hertz Hall on March 29 this year, appearing with his wife Wu Han in a Cal Performances program of works by Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Ravel and Britten.
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.
“When we started to play together people were like, ‘Are you guys married?’” says Wu Han, describing the period before they wed in 1985. “There’e always been chemistry without us even knowing it; romance and marriage came later. We became very good friends from playing and touring together, and there’s been mutual admiration from our musical interest, sharing the same experiences, opinions and recording opportunities, and playing side by side for the last 40 years. So it’s a very special thing when we play.”
This weekend’s concert includes Alexander Siloti’s transcription of Bach’s Adagio from the Toccata in C major for Organ for Cello and Piano; Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G major for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 3 in A major for Cello and Piano, Debussy’s “Claire de lune” from the “Suite bergamasque,” Ravel’s “Pièce en forme de habanera” and Britten’s Cello Sonata in C, Op. 65.
Wu Han, who cites pianists Raymond Hanson, Rudolf Serkin and Lilian Kallir (Wu Han and Finckel named their daughter Lilian) among her key mentors, says the concert will take the audience on a journey through the evolution of sonatas for piano and cello.
“The program shows the two sides of Bach: the Adagio is grand, religious and incredibly beautiful, and then the G major Viola da Gamba Sonata was written for a public concert at the Zimmermann coffee house and is a secular work,” she says, referring to Café Zimmermann in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach’s “Coffee Cantata” debuted. “And then we finish the first half with the Beethoven, which is completely different.”
The second half of the concert moves to a more contemporary sound, starting with French music by Debussy and Ravel. Then it crosses the English Channel for Britten’s Cello Sonata, the first of five major cello pieces Britten composed for Rostropovich. Britten, at the piano, and Rostropovich premiered the work in 1961 and famously recorded it together.
“Britten’s Cello Sonata is five movements of incredibly inventive language and new cello technique,” she says. “There’s one movement where the cellist only plays pizzicato, there’s perpetual motion in the last movement, and there’s all kinds of cello tricks.”
Sharing the same range from the lowest to highest notes, the cello and piano are highly compatible instruments for a duo.
“I love violin and piano music, but after a while when I listen to it, I begin to miss the low notes the cello plays, and there’s a limit on how low you can play the violin,” Finckel says. “But theoretically, there’s no limit to how high you can play a cello, and we can go way up into the violin register.”
Wu Han says Finckel with his instrument gets the most attention when the couple goes on tour, and she admits to the instrument’s allure, even for pianists.
“Everybody who sees David says, ’Oh, I love the cello,’ and nobody who sees me as the pianist says they love the piano; it’s always the cello,” she says. “The cello is in the human voice range and has a beautiful sound, and cellists are nice people. Think about it — Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Grieg, Brahms — they’re all great composers and pianists, and they all wrote cello sonatas.”
Finckel and Wu Han have collaborated on many other musical ventures. In the Bay Area, they founded, and direct, Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute at Menlo School in Atherton.
“The model we put forth in 2003 is still running well and is something that distinguishes it in the performing arts world,” says Finckel of Music@Menlo, which he and Wu Han will leave following the 2026 season. “Many 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.”
The duo — recipients of Musical America’s prestigious Musicians of the Year Award and artistic directors since 2004 of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York — look forward to appearing again with Cal Performances.
“When you return to a series, in this case at Cal Performances, you build a relationship with a community in a very deep, interesting way,” Wu Han says. “Audiences 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.”
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 calperformances.org.