VIARDOT, Paul: Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-3 / GARCIA-VIARDOT, Pauline: Violin Sonatina (Kuppel, Manz)
Pauline Viardot, daughter of the famous tenor, composer, operatic impresario and teacher, Manuel García, and friend of Schumann and Chopin, was a mezzo-soprano and composer. Her Violin Sonatina in A minor reflects her operatic background with its long melodic lines. Her son Paul, the dedicatee of Fauré’s great A minor Sonata, wrote three beautifully crafted, expressively rich violin sonatas over an almost fifty-year period.
Tracklist
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
Manz, Wolfgang (piano)
La historia de Pauline Viardot (París, 18 de julio de 1821—París, 18 de mayo de 1910), es digna de ser conocida. Hija de los García (Manuel García), famosos cantantes del siglo XIX, la vida de esta también cantante y compositora transcurrió entre la escena y el escritorio. Muy admirada por Hector Berlioz, entre otros, su arte vocal producía “a la vez asombro y emoción”, en palabras del autor francés. Al mismo tiempo, sus relaciones con los Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Fauré y otras personalidades de la época le proporcionaron un bagaje intelectual que supo trasladar a sus estilísticamente variadas obras, que escribía por puro placer. Ella misma no se consideraba compositora, aunque como puede apreciarse en este disco, no lo hacía nada mal. Junto a su Sonatina para violín aparecen otras tres Sonatas de su hijo Paul Viardot, violinista y también creador, aunque mucho menos prolijo en este sentido.
En primicia mundial para Naxos, estas grabaciones hacen justicia a la bella factura de la escritura de madre e hijo, con un alto componente pasional, dramático por momentos. El tándem perfecto que forman Reto Kuppel, violín y Wolfgang Manz, piano, proporciona todo ello y más al discurso, en unas interpretaciones difícilmente superables. Por todo ello, el disco es recomendable. © 2018 Ritmo
Violinist Reto Kuppel has appeared on a couple of other Naxos CDs that have been positively reviewed in prior issues, and I can say deservedly so. He plays with soaring tone in moments of heightened emotional passion and drama, and with intimate sensitivity in moments of reflection and repose. Pianist Wolfgang Manz received a very enthusiastic review for his Liszt album… I haven’t heard that release, but from this one I can see why. Kuppel and Manz make heavenly music together. This is absolutely essential for anyone who loves late, French-leaning, Romantic works for violin and piano. © 2018 Fanfare Read complete review
Reto Kuppel and Wolfgang Manz play very idiomatically and with consummate technique. Good sound. © 2017 American Record Guide Read complete review on American Record Guide
As a soloist, orchestra concertmaster, chamber musician, and educator, violinist Reto Kuppel has been a prominent contemporary figure on the German musical scene. A winner of the International Château de Courcillon Violin Competition, he has performed throughout Europe, Asia and the US. For almost two decades Reto Kuppel has served as concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Kuppel is currently professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg, Germany.
Kuppel studied with Andreas Röhn at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. He studied chamber music with Ralf Gothoni, Herman Krebbers and Felix Galimir, and is an avid chamber performer, also appearing with string quartets.
His vast discography mostly specialises in 19th-century virtuoso violin repertoire, and his world premiere recordings of works by Paul and Pauline Viardot (Naxos 8.573607 and 8.573749, with Wolfgang Manz, piano), Friedrich Hermann (Naxos 8.572066), Ferdinand David (Naxos 8.573048) and Henry Vieuxtemps (Naxos 8.573339) have been highly acclaimed by critics and audiences alike. www.retokuppel.de
Wolfgang Manz is a prizewinner of the 1981 Leeds and 1983 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competitions, as well as being a recipient of the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Prize in Berlin and a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition jury award.
He is primarily influenced by the German and Eastern European pianistic schools. As a much in-demand soloist—with orchestras, in recital, and in chamber ensembles—his repertoire includes more than 50 concertos and an extensive solo programme.
He has performed with many German and British orchestras including an appearance at the 1984 Proms in London as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Concert tours have taken him to major cultural centres including the Cologne Philharmonie, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Munich Herkulessaal, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, London’s South Bank, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
Apart from his career as a soloist, Wolfgang Manz has gained much recognition as a pedagogue and in 2000 he was appointed professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Nuremberg.
Pauline Viardot was a member of one of the most famous musical families in 19th-century Europe, the García family. The clan traced its origin to Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez. Born in 1775 in Seville, Spain, Manuel was a famous tenor, composer, operatic impresario, and teacher.
Pauline studied piano and began vocal lessons with her father, but Manuel died when Pauline was eleven years old. As a teenager, Pauline sought to perfect her art and began appearing in concerts, making her operatic début in London as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello in May 1839. There she met Louis Viardot, director of the Italian Theatre in Paris, and he engaged her services, also for Rossini’s Otello. They were married in 1840. During her career, Pauline sang works by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, but also sang contemporary mid-19th-century works by Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Meyerbeer (Le Prophète), Gounod (Sapho), and Brahms (Alto Rhapsody, premièred by Pauline in 1870). Among her admirers were Alfred de Musset, Gounod, Berlioz, and, most extraordinary of all, Ivan Turgenev, who lived in close proximity to Pauline and her family for 40 years. Berlioz stated that ‘her talent is so complete, so varied, she touches so many aspects of the art, she combines so much spontaneity with so much skill, that she produces at once astonishment and emotion…’
Pauline’s compositions include operettas, several with librettos by Turgenev, most notably Le Dernier Sorcier; choral works; various vocal works; and several instrumental works, almost always featuring piano. Pauline Viardot died in Paris on 18 May 1910.
Paul Viardot was born on 20 July 1857 at the castle of Courtavenel in France, the fourth child and only son of Louis and Pauline Viardot. The Viardots moved to Baden-Baden when Paul was a young child, and here he studied violin (and quickly became a prodigy) and rubbed shoulders with the political, literary, and musical elite of Europe. He attended boarding school at Carlsruhe, but the Baden-Baden interlude was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, which necessitated the family’s moving to France and then England. After the war the family returned to Paris where he continued to study music under César Franck, Théodore Dubois, and Hubert Léonard.
After the war, suffering from bronchitis that made the Parisian climate unsuitable, he accepted an invitation from the Ministry of Fine Arts to serve in North Africa. He founded a conservatory and was active in its affairs until past age 80. He died in Algiers late in 1941.