Saint-Saëns & Ysaÿe: Rare Transcriptions for Violin and Piano

Album review

The pieces in this recital by violinist Philippe Graffin and pianist Pascal Devoyon are not merely French bonbons. Several are more substantial than that. Nor are they merely transcriptions, the transference of a piece's original musical lines from one instrument to another. The opening work, in fact, is an original work by a young Saint-Saëns, not a transcription. The Caprice brilliant was written and then thought lost when Saint-Saëns was a student, according to the disc's accompanying notes. He reconstructed most of it as the finale of the Violin Concerto No. 3, and again as the Allegro de concert for violin and piano. In its original form, it has all the familiarity of the popular concerto, and seems to be almost as much of a showcase for the piano at times as for the violin. However, it is the violin that is the star of these works. While the Chopin nocturnes and the waltz are more literal transcriptions -- and here are like sweet treats that might be found as encores -- the other pieces have more embellishments and developments of the original music's ideas that take them to a different level. There are fireworks in the caprice, and in Ysaÿe's excellent transcription of Chopin's Ballade No. 1, that really allow the violinist to show off. The final Fantaisie is also not an arrangement, but an original work from late in Saint-Saëns' life. It recalls his friendship with Pablo de Sarasate with references to Spanish music, but uses the accompaniment of a harp, more in keeping with French, late-Romantic music. What is impressive about Graffin's performance is the ease with which he plays these. They could be electrifying and riveting in a large concert hall with orchestral accompaniment, but here Graffin displays an elan well-suited to a more intimate setting without indulging in sentiment. Graffin and Devoyon give a program that is balanced well between the lighter, less flashy items and the larger, more grandiose ones, shedding light into some pleasing corners of Saint-Saëns' and Ysaÿe's oeuvres.

© TiVo