Friday April 11 • 8 pm • Old First Concerts • 1751 Sacramento Street, S.F. (at Van Ness Avenue) • $15 ($12)

Saturday April 12 • 8 pm • Berkeley Piano Club • 2724 Haste St, Berkeley (at College Ave) • suggested donation $20 ($17)

Sunday • April 13 • 4 pm • Dance Palace Theater • 503 B Street, Point Reyes • $15 ($10)

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Robert Schumann's poetic cycle Papillons and Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's quixotic Sept Papillons, for solo piano and solo cello, complement two noble sonatas by Franz Schubert and Benjamin Britten. Intrigued by the unusually tender and expressive qualities of the arpeggione – a bowed guitar held between the knees, in vogue for no more than 10 years – Schubert composed the Sonata in A minor "Arpeggione" in 1824.  The great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch was the inspiration for Britten's Sonata in C (1961), in which the instruments take on operatic roles, from the hushed opening, through dramatic tragedy to exuberent heights.

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