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Philippe Graffin
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05/12/2009
Philippe Graffin's individual style of playing and outstanding achievements have already placed him among the finest of French violinists.
A student of the late Joseph Gingold and Philipp Hirschhorn, Graffin's interpretations of his native repertoire compelled Gramophone magazine to proclaim "his understanding of the idiom is second to none," while his charismatic and imaginative performances of the mainstream and contemporary repertoire have been praised throughout the world by audiences and reviewers alike.
Philippe's ever-questing mind led him to rediscover original settings of classics such as Chausson's Poème and Ravel's Tzigane. He has also brought back to life the forgotten violin concertos of Fauré, Saint-Saens and the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, as well as championing rare sonatas such as the Bruno Walter, thereby expanding the repertoire.
Philippe has shared the stage with some of the greatest musicians of our time: Lord Menuhin, M.Rostropovich, Martha Argerich, S.Commisiona, Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Additionally he regularly partners the cellists Gary Hoffman, Truls Mork, pianists Pascal Devoyon, Stephen Kovacevich, Claire Désert and the Chilingirian Quartet to name but a few.
Philippe Graffin is the founder and artistic director of "Consonances," the international chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France and is invited regularly to appear at the major chamber music festivals across Europe and the United States. He has also appeared in the BBC Proms Chamber Music series and been invited to be Artistic Director of several chamber music projects at London's Wigmore Hall.
As concerto soloist, he has performed all over Europe with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Hague's Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Contemporary music forms an essential part of Philippe's interests. A number of composers have written for him: most recently the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas has received the 2004 Lithuanian National Prize for Art for his violin concerto "Jeux", which he dedicated to Philippe. Graffin also premiered Barkauskas’s Duo Concertante for violin and viola with Nobuko Imai at the Vilnius Festival and gave the first performances in France and Russia of Rodion Shchedrin’s new work for violin, trumpet and orchestra, Concerto Parlando. David Matthews wrote his 2nd violin concerto for Philippe and Yves Prin, Vassili Lobanov and Philippe Hersant have written solo pieces for him.
Philippe has made numerous landmark recordings for Hyperion that have won many awards, including the Ysaÿe sonatas, the complete Chausson chamber music, the three Saint-Saëns violin concertos, a collection of rare French works for violin and orchestra and rare sonatas of Pierre de Breville and Joseph Canteloube for Hyperion. For Avie Records he made the world premiere recording of the Violin Concerto of Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a recital disc of Debussy, Enesco & Ravel, Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Chausson’s Poème in original manuscript versions and released a double CD of Mozart duos and the Sinfonia Concertante with Nobuko Imai. He has also recorded Miklos Rosza’s Sinfonia Concertante with Raphael Wallfisch. Following the release earlier this year of a virtuoso recital CD ‘Hungarian Dances’ on Onyx Classics, Dutton Records has released this summer a highly successful recording of rare works for violin and orchestra of Frederick Delius. (Editor’s choice Classic FM Magazine, Nov 09)
2008/9 has included returns to the Swedish Chamber Orchestra with the Kurt Weill concerto, and Lithuanian National Philharmonic with Dutilleux and Prokofiev, a tour to Taiwan with the Karl Weigl concerto and performances in the US of the Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto with the New Haven Symphony as well as many recitals including London and Cambridge and a project at the Wigmore Hall to mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin with the London Sinfonietta both as soloist and conductor, and French chamber music with pianist Claire Désert. His rediscovery of the Frederick Cliffe violin concerto in a performance in the English Music Festival was highly praised by critics and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in September.
Graffin’s schedule during Summer 2009 was very busy with a recital with pianist Olli Mustonen in the Turku Festival, Finland, and at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival he gave the Finnish premiere of the version he discovered of the Chausson Poeme. He collaborated with pianist Jeremy Menuhin and cellist Gary Hoffman in the Gstaad festival and appeared in festivals in Germany and Holland as well as in Switzerland (Sion) where he performed with Claire Desert and actress Marie-Christine Barrault.
2009/10 includes his debut in Italy with the Orchestra di Padova et del Veneto, a return to the Johannesburg Philharmonic, performances in Norway and Portugal as well as performances of the Elgar Violin Concerto in Leeds with the Orchestra of Opera North and at the Three Choirs Festival.
Philippe Graffin plays a Domenico Busano violin, made in Venice, 1730. He is currently Artist in Residence at the University of New York at Stony Brook.
Book for Philippe Graffin performing with the Orchestra of Opera North as part of Leeds International Concert Season
