Violin Sonatas by Giovanni Guzzo

Francis Poulenc, César Franck

Giovanni Guzzo

Violin Sonatas

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Champs Hill
UPC: 5060212590831
Catnr: CHRCD 081
Release date: 01 April 2016
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Label
Champs Hill

UPC
5060212590831

Catalogue number
CHRCD 081

Release date
01 April 2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Each of the sonatas on this recording arose naturally out of notions of national identity and pride. They also reflect the careful cultivation of a distinctive repertoire of French chamber music during a period marked by breakneck change and catastrophic conflicts. César Franck and Gabriel Fauré, both talented and influential teachers, played significant roles in nudging French chamber music out of the comfort of domestic parlours and privileged aristocratic salons into the mainstream of the international concert repertoire. The Belgian Franck and his Francophone followers absorbed important lessons from German music; Fauré and many fellow Gallic composers, meanwhile, sought to emulate in their work the refined tonal beauty, clarity and sophistication of contemporary French verse. The art of composition in France gained in depth and seriousness during the early decades of the Third Republic, in part in response to heavy French losses in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in part to advance the nation’s position in the escalating fin-de-siècle culture wars. While Poulenc openly mocked such high- minded gravité in the works of his precocious youth, in later years he confronted serious questions about life’s transience and paradoxes, not least those raised by the national humiliation that followed Nazi Germany’s conquest and partition of France in 1940.

Artist(s)

Giovanni Guzzo (violin)

Born in Venezuela to parents of Italian and Venezuelan heritage, young violinist Giovanni Guzzo is rapidly rising as one of the leading performers of his generation. He continues to captivate audiences around the world with his unique and passionate approach to his performances. Following his solo debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, critics described him as a wonderfully “magnetic” and “commanding” performer. Having started his musical studies with the piano at the age of five, and violin at the age of six under the tutelage of Emil Friedman and Luis Miguel Gonzales in Venezuela, he became the youngest violinist to win 1st prize at the XII National Violin Competition “Juan Bautista Plaza”, at only 12 years of age. Following this success, he relocated to Europe to become a protégé of the renowned French virtuoso violinist Maurice Hasson at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he was granted a scholarship at the early age of 16 and from where he graduated with the highest honours. A keen recitalist and chamber musician, Giovanni has worked closely with some of today’s leading musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell, Martin Fröst, Daniel Hope, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gábor Takács- Nagy, the Maggini and Takacs quartets, Gerhard Schulz, Mats Lidström, to name but a few. His talent has been recognised with numerous awards including Her Majesty the Queen’s commendation for Excellence, Gold medal at the Marlow Music Festival 2006, HRH Princess Alice’s Prize, the PROMIS award given by the London.

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Anne Lovett (piano)

Composer(s)

César Franck

César Franck was simultaneously a child prodigy and a late bloomer. His parents quickly discovered his enormous talent, but they were mostly interested in the money and fame that he might generate. Because of this, he was presented as a piano virtuoso, without a focus on composition. Unfortunately, his virtuoso career was less promising then they had hoped, and he started earning his money more as a teacher and organist. Composing stayed in the background, but in the mean time he did get some notable students, such as Henri Duparc. After a while, a sort of "Franck school" of students arose, albeit against his will, who affectionately called him ‘Pater seraphicus’. It was not until he was 50 before he started to receive some acclaim as a composer, and from his 52nd he started a very prolific period, lasting until his death at the age of 68.
Nowadays, Franck is mostly known for his instrumental music, peaking at the famous Violin Sonata in A. Besides this work,, his small collection of organ works was particularly influential.

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Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. Poulenc's wealthy family intended him for a business career in the Rhone Poulenc family company and did not allow him to enrol at a music college. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became his mentor after the composer's parents died. Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. This group of French composers from the 1920s aimed to clear music of the impressionism of Claude Debussy, and German influences such as the Romanticism of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Their motto was 'L'art pour l'art': they composed music for the sake of...

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. Poulenc's wealthy family intended him for a business career in the Rhone Poulenc family company and did not allow him to enrol at a music college. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became his mentor after the composer's parents died. Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. This group of French composers from the 1920s aimed to clear music of the impressionism of Claude Debussy, and German influences such as the Romanticism of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Their motto was "L'art pour l'art": they composed music for the sake of music, without any 'meaning' or extramusical intents. In his early works Poulenc became known for his high spirits and irreverence. During the 1930s a much more serious side to his nature emerged, particularly in the religious music he composed from 1936 onwards, which he alternated with his more light-hearted works.

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