Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Romantic Violin Concerto 18 – Jongen: Violin Concerto; Lazzari: Rapsodie (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Romantic Violin Concerto 18 – Jongen: Violin Concerto; Lazzari: Rapsodie (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:41 minutes | 1,13 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

The Romantic Violin Concerto series reaches Belgium and the music of Joseph Jongen, a composer more celebrated for his organ music now, but who was equally admired in his day for his orchestral and chamber works. Jongen studied at the Liège Conservatoire where he heard the great violinist Eugène Ysaÿe and composer-conductors Vincent d’Indy and Richard Strauss.

In this new album Philippe Graffin (a welcome and familiar presence in this series) collaborates with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins in Jongen’s Violin Concerto, one of the composer’s first substantial works. It was described by his contemporary Florent Schmitt as ‘one of the finest violin concertos’; and he admired the ‘outpouring of warm lyricism’ and ‘lush profusion of themes and rhythms’.

Also included are other works for violin and orchestra, and a Rapsodie for the same forces by Italian Romantic Sylvio Lazzari (1857–1944) who was influenced—as was Jongen—by the music of César Franck.

To those of us who know the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953) chiefly through his organ music (the Sonata eroica and the magnificent Symphonie concertante), these three violin works written in his twenties will come as surprises. Strongly tonal and lyrical, Jongen’s chief influences seem to be Richard Strauss and César Franck (even if I kept thinking ‘Chausson: Poème’ for much of the time certainly if you like that you’ll like the Jongen pieces).

Philippe Graffin begins with the earliest work here, the Fantasia in E major from 1898. It has a gorgeous honeyed melody as its main subject. A better title might have given it wider currency. The more amorphous Adagio symphonique from three years later comes from the same stable, with the soloist flying high over a rich orchestral texture. It is this characteristic that is most evident in the three movements of the Violin Concerto. Written in 1900 for his friend the violinist Emile Chaumont (1878-1942), it was dedicated, when finally published in 1914, to Eugène Ysaÿe, an admirer of Jongen’s music but who seems not to have been taken with it. Perhaps its meandering, rhapsodic manner, like a long act of love-making without a satsifactory conclusion, made it an insufficiently effective vehicle. The premiere was given in Paris the same year by Charles Herman (another Belgian violinist) and after that pretty much forgiven.

The substantial makeweight is the Rapsodie in E minor by Sylvio Lazzari (1857-1944), written in 1922 but in very much the same language as Jongen. My one reservation is Graffin’s place in the sound balance. His tender, slender tone in softer passages is one of the disc’s main atrraction but is not sufficently brilliant to match with equal vigour the full might of the orchestra. –Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

Tracklist:

01. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Fantasia in E major, Op 12 (06:17)
02. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Rapsodie in E minor (16:51)
03. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Adagio symphonique in B major, Op 20 (11:52)
04. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 – I. Allegro poco maestoso (11:55)
05. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 – II. Adagio, molto espressivo (09:14)
06. Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins – Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 – III. Animé (09:29)

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