Philippe Graffin: Fiddler's Blues

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Maurice Ravel, Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, George Enescu, Claude Debussy

Genre:

Chamber

Label: Avie

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 68

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: AV2399

AV2399. Philippe Graffin: Fiddler's Blues

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Posthumous Sonata for Solo Violin Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, Composer
Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Sonata for Violin and Piano Maurice Ravel, Composer
Claire Désert, Piano
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Suite bergamasque, Movement: Clair de lune Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Petite Fantaisie romantique Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, Composer
Claire Désert, Piano
Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3, 'dans le caract George Enescu, Composer
Claire Désert, Piano
George Enescu, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré Maurice Ravel, Composer
Claire Désert, Piano
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
Hora Unirei George Enescu, Composer
Claire Désert, Piano
George Enescu, Composer
Philippe Graffin, Violin
The big story here is the first recording of a previously undiscovered seventh unaccompanied violin sonata by Eugène Ysaÿe. Philippe Graffin explains its provenance in the booklet notes: apparently it was originally intended as the Sixth Sonata, dedicated (like the work that was eventually published as the Sixth) to the Spanish violinist Manuel Quiroga. Ysaÿe abandoned it for unknown reasons but not before sketching most of a three-movement work. Graffin supplied the closing section (less than a minute) of the finale ‘in the most Ysaÿe-esque way I could’, and I certainly couldn’t spot the join.

Played with flourishing panache and easy command, it makes an electrifying opening to this deceptively titled recital: essentially a survey of the early 20th-century Parisian scene. Graffin and the pianist Claire Désert approach Enescu’s mighty Third Sonata from an unashamedly Gallic perspective. No striving for folk effects here (Enescu provides more than enough Romanian folk colour, anyway); instead, there are a brilliance, a sly humour and a Stravinsky-like clarity and bite that place this extraordinary music in the modernist tradition. Enescu was a contemporary of Brancusi, after all.

The pair dispatch it with the same controlled energy and sense of light and shade that they bring to Ravel’s Sonata. There’s a real feeling of dialogue; Désert is delicate but never precious, and the shorter pieces share the general mood of passion tempered by refinement. Graffin’s gleaming, elegant virtuosity never degenerates either into lassitude or fireworks for fireworks’ sake, and the exquisite little unaccompanied transcription of Clair de lune (co written with David Matthews) deserves to become a standard encore – though I strongly suspect that, like everything on this splendid disc, it’s not remotely as effortless as Graffin makes it sound.

Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music. 

Stream on Presto Music | Buy from Presto Music

Gramophone Print

  • Print Edition

From £6.67 / month

Subscribe

Gramophone Digital Club

  • Digital Edition
  • Digital Archive
  • Reviews Database
  • Full website access

From £8.75 / month

Subscribe

                              

If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.