Rare French Works For Violin & Orchestra

Label: Hyperion, CDA67294
UPC: 034571172941
ASIN: B0000631BJ
CD Release: April 9, 2002
Recording Type: DDD, Stereo, Studio
Recording Date: June 2001
Venue: Ulster Hall, Belfast, UK
Running Time: 1 10' 36''



This is a collection of absolute gems. The one-movement Concerto by Fauré is the only movement to have survived from an original three-movement violin concerto, and Saint-Saëns' Morceau de Concert was originally intended as the first movement of his Third Violin Concerto. Lalo's Fantaisie Norvégienne, with its utterly gorgeous slow movement, was to become the inspiration behind Bruch's Scottish Fantaisie, and Guitare is an early encore piece for violin and piano (later orchestrated by Gabriel Pierné) that Lalo (himself a violinist) wrote for his own use. Guiraud, who taught composition to both Debussy and Dukas, wrote the haunting Caprice for Sarasate, and the Poème by Canteloube shows much of the charm he is now so famed for his Chants d'Auvergne. The combination of Romantic French music for violin and orchestra, with the ever-exquisite playing of Philippe Graffin and superb accompaniment from The Ulster Orchestra under Thierry Fischer, make this disc quite simply enchanting.





Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Violin Concerto in D minor, fragment, Op 14
1. Violin Concerto, Op 14

Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Morceau de concert, for violin & orchestra in G major, Op. 62
2. Morceau de concert

Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Fantaisie norveggienné, for violin & orchestra
3. I. Andante – Allegretto
4. II. Andante
5. III. Allegro – Presto

Ernest Guiraud (1837-1892)
Caprice, for violin & orchestra
6. I. Andante
7. II. Allegro appassionato

Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Guitare, for violin & piano in B minor, Op. 28
8. Guitarre, Op 28

Joseph Marie Canteloube (1879-1957)
Poeme, for violin & orchestra
9. Poeme


Reviewed: Gramophone 2002/5
‘Rare’ is doubly true: the quality of the playing here deserves that adjective. Until I heard Philippe Graffin play Fauré’s ‘Concerto’ (the first movement of a work he never managed to finish) I agreed with Robert Orledge’s view of it: ‘Fauré grappling with unsuitable material’. But where‚ for example‚ other violinists have made its first solo gesture sound like an unsuccessful attempt at bravura flashiness‚ Graffin plays it with quiet thoughtfulness and at once one recognises Fauré’s voice. He sounds‚ in short‚ like a player who knows Fauré’s chamber music and recalls how movingly he quoted the early Concerto in his last work‚ the String Quartet. But how will he manage in the Lalo and Saint Saëns pieces‚ written for the fiery Sarasate? Very well indeed is the answer. Immediately in the Saint Saëns Morceau de concert (originally intended as one movement of the third Violin Concerto) Graffin produces a more open‚ virtuoso manner‚ and finds an appropriate flamboyance in Lalo’s Fantaisie (which is like a briefer‚ Nordic equivalent of his Symphonie espagnole). In both‚ however‚ he shows affectionate delicacy as well‚ and his sympathetic seeking out of each composer’s voice is particularly effective in the two completely unknown works here (so far as I can tell neither has been recorded before). Poor Ernest Guiraud‚ condemned to be unheard because he was an academic who wrote the ‘unsuitable’ recitatives for Bizet’s Carmen! His Caprice is so rich in melody‚ at times earnest‚ at others agreeably sentimental‚ that Graffin and Fischer between them make a strong case for investigating his long neglected operas. Poor Joseph Canteloube‚ so famous for the Chants d’Auvergne that we suspect that he couldn’t write tunes of his own! His Poème is lusciously scored and richly violinistic‚ but long breathed melody building to impassioned rhapsody is its strongest suit (and Chausson’s Poème its closest relative); again one wants to hear Canteloube’s other‚ non folk based pieces. It is Graffin’s recognition that each of these composers needs a different manner and palette that makes this collection so absorbing. Fischer and the Ulster Orchestra are admirable partners and the Ulster Hall’s acoustic has been well caught. Such a combination of enterprise‚ imagination and responsive musicianship is rare indeed.

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