Saint-Saëns: Music for Violin & Piano, Vol. 3 Fanny Clamagirand & Vanya Cohen

• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921):
• 1 Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre, Op. 40 (Version for Violin & Piano) 07:13
• 2 Saint-Saëns: Jota aragonese, Op. 64 (Version for Violin & Piano) 04:18
• 3 Saint-Saëns: Le déluge, Op. 45: Prélude (Version for Violin & Piano) 06:40
• 4 Saint-Saëns: Havanaise in E Major, Op. 83 (Version for Violin & Piano) 10:09
• 5 Saint-Saëns: Introduction et rondo capriccioso in A Minor, Op. 28 (Arr. G. Bizet for Violin & Piano) 09:34
• 6 Saint-Saëns: Prière, Op. 158 (Version for Violin & Piano) 04:26
• 7 Saint-Saëns: Caprice andalous, Op. 122 (Version for Violin & Piano) 11:27
• 8 Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47: Printemps qui commence (Version for Violin & Piano) 04:27
• 9 Saint-Saëns: 6 Études, Op. 52: No. 6. En forme de valse (Arr. E. Ysaÿe for Violin & Piano) 09:00
• Total Runtime 01:07:14

Info for Saint-Saëns: Music for Violin & Piano, Vol. 3

Saint-Saëns composed many original works for the violin. He also took the art of arrangement to new heights of refinement, believing his transcriptions were independent of their models, following the precedent of composers such as Liszt. This album presents early or alternative duo versions of some of Saint-Saëns’s most popular works, in which the declamatory style of the originals—such as the ever-popular Danse macabre or the habanera-infused Havanaise—is made more intimate and subtle. Composed for the exclusive use of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in 1918, the Air de Dalila here receives its world premiere recording.

“I like nothing better than chamber music,” Saint-Saëns once wrote to a violinist friend and, indeed, he did much to promote the genre in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. Prominent among his works for violin and piano is the technically challenging 1885 Violin Sonata No 1 which balances passion with clarity. The Triptyque of 1912 shows his mastery of melody, rhythm and metre, and elsewhere in this first volume one finds numerous examples of his instinct for charm and characterization.

Fanny Clamagirand, violin
Vanya Cohen, piano

Fanny Clamagirand
has been established on the international stage for a number of years as violinist of great distinction. Her elegant and brilliant playing and her interpretations combining sensitivity and authority have regularly earned her critical acclaim. Her talent and commitment have been supported by many foundations and by such noted personalities as Anne-Sophie Mutter.

Fanny started playing the violin when she was seven years old, and studied with Larissa Kolos before entering Jean-Jacques Kantorow’s postgraduate course (Cycle de perfectionnement) at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of sixteen. This was followed by study with Itzhak Rashkovsky at the Royal College of Music in London, where she obtained her Artist Diploma in 2004. She subsequently received guidance from Pavel Vernikov at the Wiener Konservatorium and at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. During this time she also took part in many masterclasses.

Since winning prestigious awards and prizes, including the Rainier III Prize at the Monte Carlo Violin Masters in 2007 and First Prize in the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna in 2005, she has built her career on appearances in the most prestigious international concert halls and festivals. Among the former are Wigmore Hall in London, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Vienna Konzerthaus, KKL Luzern, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, Taipei National Concert Hall, the Tel Aviv Opera House, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Gaveau and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. Her festival engagements include Saint-Denis, Verbier, Lucerne, Menuhin Gstaad, Colmar, La Folle Journée in Nantes, Bilbao and Tokyo, St Petersburg Palaces, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival and the Chelsea Music Festival in New York. She has also appeared with the Società dei Concerti di Milano.

She performs as a soloist with such leading orchestras as the Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Symphoniker, Münchner Symphoniker, London Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Malmö Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Jerusalem Symphony, Wiener KammerOrchester, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre d’Auvergne and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, alongside conductors and soloists including Dennis Russell Davies, Franz Welser-Möst, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Tughan Sokhiev, Alain Altinoglu, John Axelrod, David Reiland, Gidon Kremer, Antoine Tamestit, Maxim Rysanov, Khatia Buniatishvili, Adam Laloum, Nicholas Angelich, Matan Porat, David Bismuth, Xavier Phillips, Raphaël Sévère and Jonathan Biss.

Fanny Clamagirand is a regular guest on radio and television in France and abroad. Her concerts are often broadcast live on France Musique and Radio Classique.

Her discography, including Ysaÿe’s six solo sonatas (Nascor, 2007), the three violin concertos of Saint-Saëns (Naxos, 2010 – winner of a ‘Choc de Classica’) and the same composer’s complete chamber music for violin and piano (Naxos, 2013), has received high praise and distinctions from the musical press. In 2019 Solstice released (as part of the album ‘Visio’) her recording of the Violin Concerto Missing by Édith Canat de Chizy, of which she gave the world premiere with the Orchestre National de France under the direction of John Storgårds.

Fanny Clamagirand plays a violin by Matteo Goffriller, made in Venice in 1700.

Booklet for Saint-Saëns: Music for Violin & Piano, Vol. 3