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Samples: CDs 3, 6 & 8
(1) Arion 68093 (1990)
Op. 3, No. 1; Op. 5, Nos. 1 & 2; Op. 8, No. 9
Bernard Thomas Chamber Orchestra; Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Violin. Arion 68093 (1990). The picture above was painted in
London in 1787 by Mather Brown, an American artist. Violinist
Joel-Marie Fauquet writes in the liner notes:
|
I remember, after hearing a performance of a
fine Sinfonie concertante for two violins by
Saint-Georges, the following comment: "He is
influenced by Mozart." In order to establish
the truth, it must be stated that Saint-Georges
remains, it is too often forgotten today, one of
the principal exponents of the French style of
the sinfonie concertante and the violin
concerto, and it was on the contrary Mozart,
with his extraordinary genius for integrating
new ideas, who introduced the quintessence
of what he had learned from the Parisian
violinists influenced by the Mannheim school, into his own violin concertos. The
circumstances were those of his second visit
to Paris in 1778. Nevertheless, the
aristocratic quality of Saint-Georges' invention,
the variety and suppleness, made of him a
musician similar to Mozart with all due
consideration. |
(2) Naxos 8.555040 (2001)
Op. 5, Nos. 1 & 2; Op. 8 in G Major
Takako Nishizaki, Violin; Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmut
Muller Bruhl, Conductor; Naxos 8.555040 (2001)
(3) Cedille 90000 035 (1997)
Op. 5, No. 2 in A Major
Violin Concerto in A Major,
Op. 5, No. 2
Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th
Centuries; Rachel Barton, Violin; Encore Chamber Orchestra;
Daniel Hege, Conductor; Cedille 90000 035 (1997). The
Black composers represented
are: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799),
and Jose Silvestre White (1836-1918). Each has a
page of his own at this Web site. A fourth composer was a
"Black Musketeer" named Chevalier J.J.O. de Meude-Monpas (18th
C.). Gabriel Banat is the noted violinist who wrote The
Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow,
published by Pendragon Press in 2006. He finds that
Meude-Monpas was a
member of a unit which rode black horses, but there is no reason
to believe he was Black.
(4) Forlane 16792 (1992)
Op. 3, No. 2 in C Major; Op. 4 in D Major; Op. 7, No. 1 in A
Major; Op. 7, No. 2 in B flat Major
Anthony Flint, Hana Kotkova, Hans Liviabella & Tamas Major,
Violin; Orchestre de la Svizzera Italiana; Forlane 16792
(1999). Alain Guede writes in the liner notes:
|
The "famous Saint-George", as commentators
invariably call him, was, undoubtedly, one of
the most striking figures of musical Paris in
this second half of the eighteenth century.
The "Watteau of music", as he was often called at the time, the "Voltaire of music" as
the Abbe Gregoire called him, was then one
of the very few composers able to fill the
salons regularly with several hundreds if not
thousands of people. And whereas the Lord
of Ferney (Voltaire) was the incarnation of this
"Age of Enlightenment", with its light-heartedness, its quest for happiness and the
hope of a more just society, its revolt - and
whereas Fragonard and later Greuze best
translated the abundance of the time in
painting, it is Saint-George who appears as
the French composer who, through his life and
work, best portrays this period.
...
Composed during different periods in Saint-George's career, these four concertos each
have their own tonality and character. Their
individuality is highlighted by each of the four
soloists, whose talents are quite diverse.
Nonetheless, these works are related and bear witness to the homogeneity of the
composer's work. There is indeed a Saint-George "signature". |
(5) Avenira AV 9985 2E (2000)
Op. 2, No. 2 in D Major; Op. 3,
No. 1 in D Major; Op. 8, No. 1 in D Major
(6) Avenira AV 9986 2E (2000)
Op. 2, No. 1 in G Major; Op. 4 in
D Major; Op. 8, No. 9 in G Major
Violin Concerto in G Major, Op.
8, No. 9
(7) Avenira AV 9987 2E (2000)
Op. 5, No. 1 in C Major; Op. 7,
No. 2 in B Flat Major
(8) Avenira AV 9988 2E (2000)
Op. 5, No. 2 in A Major; Op. 8,
No. 10 in D Major
Violin Concerto in A Major,
Op. 5, No. 2
(9) Avenira AV 9989 2E (2000)
Op. 3, No. 2 in C Major; Op. 8,
No. 11 in G Major
Jiri Zilak, Violin; Jan Motlik, Alto; Radio Symphony Orchestra
of Pilsen; Frantisek Preisler, Conductor.
The Avenira Foundation is based in Lucerne, Switzerland. It is
also the publisher of the 1996 biography Joseph Boulogne called
Chevalier de Saint-Georges by Emil F. Smidak. The liner notes
are from the book.
Roger-Claude Travers wrote a review of the five discs for the
June 2000 issue of Diapason, a music magazine which is published
in French. The following excerpt is translated from French:
|
The Avenira Foundation is devoted exclusively
to publishing the works of Emil Smidak,
author of a recent biography of Saint-Georges. It comes close to completely
fulfilling our wishes for rehabilitation of this
appealing catalog.
...
How should Saint-Georges be played? The same way he directed Le Concert des
Amateurs: with precision, suavely nuanced,
with vivaciousness, bringing elegance to
expressive beauty. Miroslav Vilimec is a
charming, sensitive and honest technician of
art. His seductive vibrato is both compressed
and generous. Was it really necessary to
entrust the entire body of concertos to one
soloist? The performance on the Forlane label chose the inverse option and varied the
soloists from one work to the other. But
Preisler's conducting is more lively, as well as
more picturesque. The two approaches
complement each other. |
(10) Naxos 8.557322 (2004)
Op. 3, No. 1 in D; No. 10 in G; Post. No. 2 in D
Yu Qian Zhou, Violin; Toronto Camerata; Kevin Mallon, Conductor;
Naxos 8.557322 (2004)
(11) CBC SMCD 5225 (2003)
Op. 3, No. 1 in D Major
Linda Melsted, Violin; Tafelmusik Orchestra; Jeanne Lamon,
Conductor; CBC SMCD 5225 (2003)
(12) Assai 222662 (2004)
Concerto for Violin and
Guitar, Op. 8, No. 9 in G
Major
Concerto for Violin, Op. 11, No. 2 in D Major
Stephanie-Marie Degand, Violin; Le Parlement de Musique;
Martin Gester, Conductor; Assai 222662 (2004)
(13) Calliope 9373 (2007)
Concertos for Violin, Op. 7, No. 1 in A Major; Bertrand Cervera,
Violin; Op. 4 in D Major; Christophe Guiot, Violin; Op. 7, No. 9
in G Major; Thibault Vieux, Violin; Les Archets de Paris;
Calliope 9373 (2007)
(14)
Avenira AV
276015 (2006)
Concertos for Violin, Op. 7, No. 2, in B flat Major; Op. 8, in G
Major; Without Op. No., in D Major
Miroslav Vilimec, Violin; Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra;
Frantisek Preisler, Jr., Conductor; Avenira AV 276015 (2006)
Michelle Garnier-Panafieu writes in the liner notes, translated
by Mary Pardoe:
|
These
three concertos were composed within a short lapse of
time, between 1777, the year Ernestine was
presented at the Comédie-Italienne and Saint-George
entered the service of the Duke and Duchess of Orléans,
and 1778, when he published his second set of symphonies
(Opus IX), which had been performed at the Concert
Spirituel as well as at the Concert des Amateurs. |
(15) Oehms OC 705
(2007)
Op. 2, No. 1 in G Major
Yura Lee, Violin; Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie; Reinhard Goebel,
Conductor; Oehms OC 705 (2007)
This page was last updated
on
March 5, 2022
