Frank Martin: Concerto pour violon / Esquisse Svetlin Roussev, L'Orchestre de Chambre de Genève & Arie van Beek

• Frank Martin (1890 - 1974): Concerto pour violon et orchestre:
• 1 Martin: Concerto pour violon et orchestre: I. Allegro 14:14
• 2 Martin: Concerto pour violon et orchestre: II. Andante molto moderato 10:27
• 3 Martin: Concerto pour violon et orchestre: III. Presto 07:41
• Frank Martin:
• 4 Martin: Esquisse pour orchestre 13:38
• Total Runtime 46:00

Info for Frank Martin: Concerto pour violon / Esquisse

A recording dedicated to Frank Martin, an important figure of 20th century music, faithful to the tonal tradition, while experimenting with forms and instrumentation; he was also one of the first "classical" composers to have written for the electric guitar!

In Frank Martin’s youth, Geneva’s musical life was very much oriented towards Germanic music, the works of the great German masters being those that were mainly played. Although Frank Martin, naturally gifted for music, did not follow the official teaching, he studied privately from 1917 onwards with Joseph Lauber (1864-1952), a musician trained at the Zurich Conservatory. Lauber was not indiffer­ent to the novelties brought by French composers at the beginning of the 20th century. He introduced his pupil to the works of César Franck (a Belgian, admittedly!).

For Frank Martin, who had already turned 25 and composed several pieces, this was a revelation. So was the discovery of the music of De­bussy, Ravel, Duparc, Fauré, not forgetting Stravinsky, whom Ernest Ansermet – founder of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 1918 – regularly included in his programmes. Frank Martin was bewildered by these harmonic and rhythmic novelties. His quest for a highly personal style and language lasted for some 20 years, until the turn of the 1940s when he composed Le Vin herbé. According to Martin him­self, this secular oratorio “was the first important work in which I spoke my own language’. These two decades were nevertheless punctuated by works which all revealed, to varying degrees, many of the composer’s original traits. Some were only modest pieces such as Pavane couleur du temps (1920), oth­ers more ambitious works such as La Nique à Satan (1931) or the Symphonie pour grand orchestre (1934).

Svetlin Roussev, violin
L'Orchestre de Chambre de Genève
Arie van Beek, conductor

Svetlin Roussev
Since winning the first prize at the widely acclaimed first Sendai International Competition in May 2001, the charismatic violin virtuoso Svetlin Roussev en­joys a prestigious international career in many of the world’s major concert halls, including the Bol­shoi Theatre and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, UNESCO, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Konzerhaus in Berlin and Palais of the United Nations in Geneva.

Roussev is a regular guest soloist with various or­chestras in the USA, Latin America, Asia and Europe. He has performed under the baton of conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Léon Fleisher, Yehudi Menuhin, Yuzo Toyama, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, François-Xavier Roth and Jean-Jacques Kan­torow.

He has been leading and conducting various ensem­bles and orchestras in Bulgaria, France, Poland, Korea, Japan and Sweden.

With remarkable virtuosity and intensity, Svetlin per­forms a broad repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. He is renowned for his renditions of Slavic compositions and keenly promotes Bulgar­ian music. Acclaimed Bulgarian Musician of the Year in 2006, his home country honoured him again in 2007, 2016 and 2019 with the Cristal Lyra distinction awarded by the Ministry of Culture. In 2018, Svetlin Roussev became an Honorary Citizen of his home­town Ruse, along with the Nobel Prize of literature Elias Canetti.

Svetlin Roussev’s CD recordings include works by Vladigerov, Sibelius, Hartmann, Grieg, Medtner, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Ravel, Ysaÿe for the labels Ambroisie, Integral, Fondamenta, Decca, Arcantus and YESM & ARTS.

Roussev is a violin professor at the prestigious Haute école de musique in Geneva after 10 years being a professor at the CNSMDP in Paris. He has been giving violin and chamber music masterclasses around the world. He is also the artistic advisor and artist in resi­dence of the March Music Days International Festival in his hometown Ruse after serving as artistic direc­tor and artist in residence of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Svetlin Roussev has won numerous prizes at many international competitions, including Indianapolis, Long-Thibaud and Melbourne. He began his musical education in his home town of Ruse, Bulgaria, with his mother. At the age of 15, he was accepted into the CNSMD where he studied with Gérard Poulet, Devy Erlih and Jean-Jacques Kantorow. Three years later, the jury unanimously awarded him the first prize for violin and chamber music. Subsequently he entered the postgraduate program.

Svetlin Roussev performs on the Stradivarius 1710 Camposelice, a violin kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

This album contains no booklet.