Recital Gautier Capuçon, cello - Frank Braley, piano

In summer 2020, mid-pandemic, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France, free of charge, during his musical odyssey ‘Un été en France’. During July 2022, for the third edition of this project, he performs 15 concerts across the nation including Autun, Clairveaux, Eauz, and his hometown of Chambéry. He also showcases 14 young musicians and 8 young dancers within his concert presentations.

Committed to exploring and expanding the cello repertoire, Capuçon performs an extensive array of works each season and regularly premieres new commissions. Current projects include collaborations with Lera Auerbach, Danny Elfman and Thierry Escaich.

In the 2022/23 season, Capuçon appears with, amongst others, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Andris Nelsons), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck), San Francisco Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Marie Jacquot), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Andris Nelsons), NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Pablo Heras-Casado), Munich Philharmonic (Lorenzo Viotti), Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (Christoph Eschenbach), Orchestre de Paris (Klaus Mäkelä), and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Semyon Bychkov). He is the Curating Artist at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and in addition, Capuçon plays at Festivals worldwide, including the Salzburg, Grafenegg, and Verbier Festivals.

In recital, Capucon pairs regularly with Frank Braley and Jérôme Ducros – while other chamber music partners include Nikolai Lugansky and Gabriela Montero as well as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, the Labèque sisters and the Artemis, Ébène and Hagen quartets.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography. His latest album Sensations is due to be released in Autumn 2022, exploring short pieces from a range of different genres. His album of romantic works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff in collaboration with Andreas Ottensammer and Yuja Wang is also released in Autumn 2022 by Deutsche Grammophon. 2020’s Warner Classics album Emotions features music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar and has achieved gold status in France, remaining at Number 1 in the charts for over 30 weeks and selling more than 110,000 copies. Earlier recordings include concertos by Shostakovich (Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev) and Saint-Saëns (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Lionel Bringuier); the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; Schubert’s String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet; Intuition with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris/ (Douglas Boyd and Jérôme Ducros); an album of Schumann works, recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ (Bernard Haitink); Beethoven Piano Trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly as well as a “Best of” recording on occasion of his 40th birthday.

Capuçon has been featured on DVD in live performances with the Wiener Philharmoniker (Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1) Berliner Philharmoniker (Haydn Cello Concerto No.1) and with Lisa Batiashvili, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’s Concerto for Violin and Cello). A household name in his native France, he also appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, and The Artist Academy, and is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon. 

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now, he performs with world leading orchestras, works with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, and Christian Thielemann, and collaborates with contemporary composers including Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Jérôme Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann. 

Braley performs regularly in Japan, the US and Canada, and throughout Europe. He has played with the top orchestras, including Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Radio France Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Orchestras of Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Toulouse, National Orchestra of Belgium, Liège Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, London Philharmonic, BBC Wales Orchestra, Royal National Scottish Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Bournemouth Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Copenhagen Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as J-C Casadesus, Stéphane Denève, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Hans Graf, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Kiril Karabits, Emmanuel Krivine, Louis Langrée, Kurt Masur, Ludovic Morlot, Paul McCreesh, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, John Nelson, Michel Plasson, Yutaka Sado, Michael Schonwandt, Antonio Pappano and Walter Weller.

Braley has toured the four corners of the globe, performing in China with the Orchestre National de France, in Japan and China with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, and in Italy with Orchestre Français des Jeunes and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. In the US he has played at the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf, and at the opening of Carnegie Hall’s new Zankel Hall, with the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

He stood in for Martha Argerich at the 2011 BBC Proms with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Myung-Whung. He performs in Amsterdam and Paris with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Bernard Haitink. Recent appearances include Pleyel Hall in Paris with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (Bach) and with Orchestre National d’Ile de France (Mozart), the Folles Journées festival in Nantes, and in Japan with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot (Mozart), and this season with the Orchestre National de France and the Sao Paulo Symphony conducted by Stéphane Denève (Poulenc), Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Seoul Philharmonic and Hans Graf, New Japan Philharmonic, and on tour with his Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie.

He has given recitals in Paris, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hanover and Ferrara, and performed as a duo with Renaud Capuçon in Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Bonn, Brussels, Rome, Florence, Trieste, New York, Washington, Paris and Vienna. He plays chamber music with, among others, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Maria Joao Pires, Gérard Causse, Eric Le Sage, Paul Meyer and Emmanuel Pahud.

Beyond his career as a soloist, he has a passion for original projects; he has performed Beethoven’s Complete Sonatas for Piano at the La Roque d’Anthéron festival, and in Rome, Bilbao, Lisbon, Tokyo and Brazil. He has performed Beethoven’s Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Renaud Capuçon in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Bordeaux, Grenoble, Chambéry, Lyon, London (Wigmore Hall), Luxembourg, Singapore and Hong Kong.