Intégrale des sonates pour violon et piano

Description

It is very rare in the music world for two artists, each with an impressive international solo career, to form an equal partnership. The collaboration between Zino Francescatti and Robert Casadesus is well documented in a series of recordings still considered exemplary — and it was such a rare and happy partnership. Casadesus (1899 - 1972) came from a multifaceted family of French musicians. He studied under the same Parisian teacher as Gabrielle (Gaby), his future wife and frequent duo partner. He gained worldwide fame in the 1920s by touring all five continents. Casadesus and his family fled the Nazi regime in Europe to settle in Princeton, New Jersey, between 1942 and 1946. It was during this time that he had his promising musical encounter with Zino Francescatti (1902-1991), who, like him, came from a family of active musicians. Francescatti was also hailed as a child prodigy and had already excelled at the age of 10, playing Beethoven's violin concerto. He arrived in the United States in 1939 and, once the war was over, split his time between living in France and the United States. In 1987, Francescatti launched an international violin competition in Aix-en-Provence, which he financed by selling his 1727 Stradivarius. Like Casadesus, Francescatti had an affinity for the music of Maurice Ravel, and their recordings of works by French composers in particular (alongside major classical works) helped elevate the pieces of their compatriots to a reference level.