Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Brabbins - Jongen & Lazzari: Violin Concertos (2015) [Digital Download 24/96]

This Hyperion's release 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. On this new album Philippe Graffin collaborates with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins in Jongen's Violin Concerto, one of the composer's first substantial works. Also included are other works for violin and orchestra, and a Rapsodie by Italian Romantic Sylvio Lazzari who was influenced - as was Jongen - by the music of Cesar 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.

Tracklist:

01 - Fantasia in E major, Op 12
02 - Rapsodie in E minor
03 - Adagio symphonique in B major, Op 20
04 - Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 - I. Allegro poco maestoso
05 - Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 - II. Adagio, molto espressivo
06 - Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 17 - III. Animé

Produced by Rachel Smith. Engineered by Ben Connellan.
Recorded in July 2013 at Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Musicians:
Philippe Graffin - violin
Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Conducted by Martyn Brabbins.


Thanks to the Original customer!