Concerto pour violon Sonate pour violon

Description

Gifted with a sharp mind, a friend of Proust, he was also a brilliant critic and director of the Opéra de Paris in the later years of his life. More known for his lyrical works, "Ciboulette," and his melodies, his concert works, including the Violin Concerto and the Hungarian Suite, have remained almost unknown to this day — shining with the same brilliance and reflecting refinement, joy, elegance, and sensitivity. A music to discover and a record to listen to. Reynaldo Hahn was born in 1875 in Venezuela to a mother of Spanish descent and a father of German descent, and became "the most Parisian of Parisians," an admirer of Brummel with his always impeccable attire, of Henri de Régnier when he wears a monocle, of Gounod and Massenet when he composes, distanced from the music one breathes in certain circles: that of Wagner, for example, and that of some Franckists, which he found too constraining, with their leitmotifs or cyclic forms. This man of taste, with a vast culture, possesses just as much the politeness of the heart: "Heaviness, boredom, that is what must be avoided at all costs; the Muses do not wear glasses," he writes. What seduces him? Clarity, restraint — even litotes: there is in him a classicism that clearly states what is well conceived. All his works prove this, whether intended for piano, stage, orchestra, or chamber: this present record testifies to and proves it.