Philippe Graffin - violin
Schiermonnikoog Masterclasses
breedingplace for young talent
16 March – 23 March 2012
Philippe Graffin - Violin (accompanied by Jelger Blanken - piano)
Violinist Philippe Graffin has established an indisputable reputation for his interpretations of the French repertoire, natural perhaps for one of the few pupils of Josef Gingold, himself a pupil of Ysaye for whom most of the violin repertoire of this era was written.
Philippe made his first recording with Yehudi Menuhin conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and his many highly acclaimed recordings since then bear witness to a questing mind and include many world premieres. He has rediscovered original settings of Chausson's Poème and Ravel's Tzigane and has championed the forgotten violin concertos of Fauré and the English composer Coleridge-Taylor which he has recorded and performed at the BBC Proms.
Graffin’s recordings for Hyperion Records include the complete Chausson chamber music, the complete music of Saint-Saëns for violin and piano and violin and orchestra, as well as a collection of rare French works for violin and orchestra and a recent addition to their Romantic Violin series with world-premiere recordings of concertos by Frederick Cliffe and Frederic d’Erlanger. For Avie Records he made the world premiere recording of the Coleridge-Taylor violin concerto, a recital disc of Debussy, Enesco & Ravel, Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Chausson’s Poème in original manuscript versions and a double CD of Mozart duos and Sinfonia Concertante with Nobuko Imai. Graffin’s latest releases include works of Delius for violin and orchestra and the concertos of David Matthews for Dutton Records, a recording of the Schumann Violin Concerto and Sonata on Onyx Classics and the world premiere of Philippe Gaubert’s Violin Concerto for Timpani Records, recently awarded a ‘Diapason d’Or’.
As concerto soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as The Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Saarbrücken Philharmonie, the Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra di Padova et del Veneto and St Petersburg Philharmonic.
Recent highlights include a performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto with The Philharmonia and Sir Roger Norrington, a recital at the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam and a celebration concert at the Wigmore Hall in which he invited close chamber music colleagues to perform with him such as Truls Mork and Stephen Kovacevich. Season 2011/12 opened with the 21st edition of his festival, a recital at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and a televised recital at the Centre de musique romantique francaise in Venice. Other highlights include performances of the Barber concerto in Switzerland, Schumann with the Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino, works by Shchedrin and Prokofiev with the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest and performances in Johannesburg to mark the centenary of the Coleridge-Taylor concerto he recorded there in 2004. Philippe’s diary also includes recitals and chamber music concerts in Paris, Brussels, London, Padua and concerts in a number of festivals in France such as Prades Festival, Festival de Chambord, Festival d’Orangeries de Sceaux.
Graffin enjoys performing works of many living composers such as Dutilleux and Saariaho and has had works written for him by Rodion Shchedrin, Vytautas Barkaukas, David Matthews, Philippe Hersant and Yves Prin. Following a performance of his Concerto Cantabile with Rostropovich conducting, Shchedrin wrote Concerto Parlando for Graffin which is now awaiting release on CD.
Philippe is a highly sought after chamber musician and is founder and artistic director of the "Consonances" chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010. A small tour with chamber music partners to Saint-Nazaire, Paris and Wigmore Hall, London was set up to mark this achievement. Philippe has also written a short children’s story for violin and narrator, La Fee Cachee, illustrated with musical excerpts by Mozart, Paganini, Kreisler and Ravel.
He plays a Domenico Busano violin, made in Venice, 1730. He is guest professor at the Royal Conservatorium Brussels.
Jelger Blanken - piano
Dutch pianist and composer Jelger Blanken graduated from the Conservatory of Amsterdam in 2002, as a student of Ludmilla Baslawskaja and Håkon Austbø. In 2002, together with the Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer, Jelger won the prestigious Medal of the Friends of the Concertgebouw and the 'Eduard van Beinum' scholarship.
Jelger has been seen regularly on Dutch concert podiums with a variety of ensembles and in multiple musical theatre productions. Jelger has also performed on the foreign concert circuit in countries such as France, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia and Estonia, as a soloist, as a chamber music player and as a promoter of contemporary Dutch music.
Accompanying Dutch baritone Henk Neven, he performed in a vast range of Dutch concert halls in 2004 and 2005. He took part in the chamber music series entitled 'Members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra'. Jelger has performed at many international festivals, such as the second Franz Liszt Festival in Utrecht (2006), the Grachten Festival in Amsterdam (2009), and the Dopper Festival (2009, with the Farkas Quintet). In September 2010 he played a program of Dutch early contemporary pieces in the Gergiev Festival, together with violinist Philippe Graffin. Most of these pieces have been recorded on CD, released in June 2011 for Onyx Classic, an international quality label featuring world-renowned artists.
In October 2010, together with the wind quintet 'Eolian Ensemble', he performed in the “AVRO Sunday Morning Concert”, initially broadcasted for national radio in the Concertgebouw, and later broadcasted in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Jelger’s appearances in musical theatre include the youth theatre production 'Wild', directed by Margrith Vrenegoor (premiered in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 2005) and a performance with the Eolian Ensemble, together with famous Dutch jazz singer and actor Edwin Rutten (2009).
Jelger works as an accompanist and instrumental coach in the concert series and masterclasses of 'the International Holland Music Sessions' (since 2002), 'the International Foundation Masterclasses' in Apeldoorn (since 2007) and the 'Schiermonnikoog International Festival of Chamber Music' (since 2011). Through these series, he has played with international young talents from across the world in concert halls all over Europe.
Since 2003, he has been an instrumental coach and accompanist at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
As a composer, many of his works were performed in the national concert circuit, such as “New ground” for piano solo (2007), six songs by Apollinaire (2008) and late solace (2008) for organ, which was premiered in the Old Church in Delft. His two pieces for violin and piano, were premiered in Mexico City in 2006.
In 1998, Jelger earned his Master’s degree in Art and Cultural Sciences from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his dissertation on networking and dispositions in the world of modern classical music since 1945 in the Netherlands.