Philippe Graffin: Fiddler's Blues
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Maurice Ravel, Eugène (Auguste) Ysaÿe, George Enescu, Claude Debussy
Genre:
Chamber
Label: Avie
Magazine Review Date: 04/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 68
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: AV2399

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 |
Author: Richard Bratby
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.
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