The Canada Council for the Arts' collection of string instruments includes the 1841 Charles François Gand cello, valued at $180,000 and currently on loan to Thomas Chartré.
Gand was apprenticed to Nicolas Lupot, the most skilled French luthier of his time. (He was known as the French Stradivari.) The Gand cello Chartré plays is characterized by an extremely strong and clear voice and has the warmth of an older instrument.
Below, Chartré demonstrates with the Praeludium from Max Reger's Suite for Cello No. 2 in D minor, Op. 131/c, recorded recently at CBC Montreal's Studio 12.
One of CBC Music's 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30, Chartré completed his master's degree at the Paris Conservatory earlier this year. He's continuing his studies with Roland Pidoux at the École normale de musique Alfred Cortot, and with Michel Strauss at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
He's got a number of concerts planned in Paris and Montreal in the coming months, including a recital at Tanna Schulich Hall on Nov. 25 as part of the OSM Manulife Competition, a January 2017 concert of music from the Belle Époque at the Musée national Jean-Jacques Henner in Paris with Trio Zadkine, and an April 2017 performance of Rachmaninoff's Trio Élégiaque No. 2 at the Chapelle historique du Bon Pasteur in Montreal.
One of his projects this year is to record an album on the label of the École normale de musique Alfred Cortot.
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