Paul Juon

Composer Paul Juon was partly trained in Germany, and his classmate Rachmaninov dubbed him the Russian Brahms. Like that German composer, Juon wrote in classical forms and was influenced by folk music, although he did not use actual folk melodies. Juon was born Pavel Yuon in Moscow on March 6, 1872, to Swiss parents. His father was a low-level government insurance official. Juon attended German schools in Moscow but enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory in 1989 after he showed unusual musical talent. He studied composition with Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev, also taking flute courses. Among his classmates in his composition classes, was Rachmaninov, a year younger, and it was that composer who bestowed upon him the Russian Brahms tag. Juon went on for advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Woldemar Bargiel, a colleague of Brahms and a half-brother of Clara Schumann. He returned to Russia but then was invited by violinist Joseph Joachim to join the faculty at the Hochschule für Musik, and he remained there until he retired to Switzerland in 1934. Juon's students represented a significant international group, including Stefan Wolpe, Nikos Skalkottas, and Werner Richard Heymann. He died in Vevey, Switzerland, on August 21, 1940. Juon wrote a good deal of chamber music, four symphonies, three violin concertos, a triple concerto, art song, and an opera, Aleko (1896). Despite his long residence in Germany, many of his works have a pronounced Russian flavor. He has a tendency toward folkish turns of phrase, although, like Tchaikovsky (an unavoidable influence), he avoided quotation of folk melodies. Juon generally stuck to classical three- and four-movement forms, however, living up to Rachmaninov's moniker. Rarely played for some decades after his death, Juon's music was revived in the 1990s and 2000s, partly due to efforts on the part of Swiss recording companies. Violinist Charles Wetherbee and pianist David Korevaar recorded Juon's three violin sonatas in 2019.
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