The Chopin Project: Chopin for Cellists

Every piece that Chopin wrote features the piano. Here, however, Franco-Belgian cellist Camille Thomas has created the three-volume The Chopin Project that puts the cello centre stage. Most of the works in this album are versions of piano pieces, arranged and played with consummate style and delicacy—Thomas’s partnership with pianist Julien Brocal is clearly inspiring. Several of the arrangements are by Auguste Franchomme, the 19th-century composer and cellist whom Camille Thomas names one of her muses, and whose Stradivarius cello she plays. The “Raindrop” Prelude sparkles in an arrangement for four cellos, while the various nocturnes acquire a new lyricism when transferred to a string instrument. There’s even a deluxe encore featuring singer Jane Birkin.