Philippe Graffin
Violinist Philippe Graffin has specialized in the classic repertory of his native France, unearthing forgotten pieces and playing new music as well as mainstream works. He has appeared several times on the Hyperion label's series of recordings of neglected Romantic violin concertos.
Graffin was born in 1964 in Romilly-sur-Seine, France. Among his teachers was violinist Josef Gingold, who was a student of the influential violinist-composer Eugène Ysaÿe; Gingold himself took on few students, and Graffin might be regarded as a pure representative of the Belgian-French tradition. He has been a prominent concerto soloist across Europe, performing with the BBC Symphony, the Residentie Orkest in the Hague, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, among others. A noted chamber music player, he founded the Consonances Chamber Music Festival of St-Nazaire, France, in 2015. Graffin's widest international recognition has come from his unusually vigorous and varied recording career. He appeared on a Royal Philharmonic Orchestra album conducted by Yehudi Menuhin and, in the late '90s, began a long association with the Hyperion label, making his recording debut on an album of Ysaÿe's solo violin sonatas and other solo works in 1997. Many of his early recordings held to the repertory of which Ysaÿe was the primary exponent, including works by Chausson and Saint-Saëns.
In 2002, Graffin drew on French repertory as well for the album Rare French Works for Violin and Orchestra, featuring music by Canteloube, Fauré, Ernest Guiraud, Lalo, and Saint-Saëns. As Graffin's career has developed, he has performed and recorded an increasingly wide variety of music. He has performed and recorded little-known violin concertos by Fauré and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (of which he made the world premiere recording), and new concertos have been composed for him by Rodion Shchedrin, David Matthews, and Vytautas Barkauskas, among others. Graffin contributed three volumes to Hyperion's Romantic Violin Concertos series, including a 2011 album pairing concertos by Baron Frederic d'Erlanger and Frederic Cliffe. However, he has also recorded for a variety of other labels, including Avie, ASV, and Resonus Classics. In 2019, with pianist Claire Désert, he released the French violin recital Fiddler's Blues on Avie, and in 2024, he issued Rêves with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; the album featured newly discovered works for violin and orchestra by Ysaÿe. Graffin is a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMD).
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Jongen & Lazzari: Violin Concertos (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 18)
Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Jan 4, 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rêves - Ysaÿe: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Poème Concertant
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on Feb 9, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 3 (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 1)
Philippe Graffin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Aug 1, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fiddler's Blues (Ysaÿe, Ravel, Debussy, Enesco)
Philippe Graffin, Claire Désert
Duets - Released by AVIE Records on Feb 1, 2019
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns & Ysaÿe: Rare Transcriptions for Violin and Piano
Philippe Graffin, Pascal Devoyon
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Oct 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chausson: Poème, Piano Trio and Other Chamber Music
Pascal Devoyon, Philippe Graffin
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Apr 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gaubert: Orchestral Works, Vol. 3
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg , Philippe Graffin, Henri Demarquette, Marc Soustrot
Classical - Released by Timpani on Apr 26, 2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rare French Works: Fauré: Violin Concerto – Canteloube: Poème etc.
Philippe Graffin, Ulster Orchestra, Thierry Fischer
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Mar 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2; Triptyque etc.
Philippe Graffin, Pascal Devoyon
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Oct 1, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chausson: Concert for Piano Sextet, Op. 21; Piano Quartet
Chilingirian Quartet, Philippe Graffin, Pascal Devoyon
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Oct 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jongen & Lazzari: Violin Concertos (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 18)
Philippe Graffin, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Martyn Brabbins
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Jan 4, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hungarian Dances
Philippe Graffin, Claire Désert
Classical - Released by Onyx Classics on Sep 29, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In The Shade Of Forests - The Bohemian World Of Debussy, Enescu & Ravel
Philippe Graffin, Claire Désert
Classical - Released by Avie Records on Mar 28, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Elgar: Violin Concerto • Chausson: Poème (original manuscript versions)
Concertos - Released by AVIE Records on Jan 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn & Schumann
Philippe Graffin, Orchestra Di Padova E Del Veneto, Tuomas Rousi
Classical - Released by COBRA RECORDS on May 23, 2016
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Cliffe & Erlanger: Violin Concertos (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 10)
Philippe Graffin, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, David Lloyd-Jones
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Feb 28, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No.2
Philippe Graffin, Claire Désert
Classical - Released by Onyx Classics on Jul 5, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bréville & Canteloube: Violin Sonatas
Philippe Graffin, Pascal Devoyon
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Oct 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ysaÿe: Sonatas Nos. 1-6 for Solo Violin etc.
Classical - Released by Hyperion on Mar 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn & Schumann
Philippe Graffin, Orchestra Di Padova E Del Veneto, Tuomas Rousi
Classical - Released by Cobra Records on May 23, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tauno Marttinen
Philippe Graffin, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Ari Rasilainen
Classical - Released by Cobra Records on Dec 16, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo