NEW YORK, NY – August 18, 2022 –
Julien Chauvin and his
Concert de la Loge return to Naïve Classiques’ Vivaldi Edition with
Concerti per violino X 'Intorno a Pisendel', due out September 30. The album follows their critically acclaimed
Concerti per violino VIII “Il Teatro” and is the 69
th release in Naïve Classiques’ ambitious Vivaldi Edition, a project conceived of at the beginning of this century to record the Foà and Giordano collections housed at the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin. This rich archive of music is set to be recorded in its entirety by 2027, the 350
th anniversary of Vivaldi’s birth.
This tenth volume of violin concertos includes six works linked to Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755), a major musical figure in the court of Dresden in the 18th century. Vivaldi was introduced to Pisendel circa 1716 when the Crown Prince of Saxony, Friedrich August, traveled to Venice accompanied by musicians from the Dresden orchestra. Pisendel – a brilliant violinist who later was elected Konzertmeister at the Dresden Court chapel – became a pupil and friend of Vivaldi. As a result, he was able to copy many of Vivaldi’s compositions and received several autographs from the Red Priest to take back to Dresden with him. Vivaldi also dedicated sonatas (RV 2, 6, 19, 25, 29) and violin concertos (RV 172, 205, 237, 242, 314, 340 and probably also RV 328) to Pisendel.
It is thanks to the admiration and foresight of Pisendel that the city of Dresden possesses a considerable Vivaldi catalogue.
Vivaldi: Concerti per violino X 'Intorno a Pisendel' includes three of the concertos composed for Pisendel (RV 237, RV 314 and RV 340) and three others copied by his hand (RV 225, RV 226 and RV 369). Julien Chauvin once again brings his “naturalness, tonal radiance, intonational purity and beguiling phrasal sensitivity” (
The Strad) to the many contrasts which mark Vivaldi’s concerto repertoire.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741): Concerti per violino X, ‘Intorno a Pisendel’
Concert de la Loge
Julien Chauvin, Violin and Direction
Concerto RV 314 in G Major | Allegro, Adagio, Allegro
Concerto RV 226 in D Major | Allegro, Largo, Allegro
Concerto RV 369 in Bb Major | Allegro ma poco, Largo, Allegro
Concerto RV 237 in D minor | Allegro, Adagio, Allegro
Concerto RV 225 in D Major | Allegro, Largo, Allegro
Concerto RV 340 in A Major | Allegro, Adagio, Allegro
ABOUT JULIEN CHAUVIN
Julien Chauvin was attracted at an early age by the Baroque revolution and the new wave of historically informed performance practice using period instruments, and trained at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Vera Beths, co-founder with Anner Bylsma of L’Archibudelli. In 2003 he was a prizewinner at the International Early Music competition in Bruges. He then went on to perform as a soloist, while at the same time playing in the leading European Baroque ensembles, before founding Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he directed jointly with Jérémie Rhorer for ten years, and in 2015 he formed Le Concert de la Loge. In parallel with this, he continues his collaboration with the Quatuor Cambini-Paris, formed in 2007. Julien Chauvin has conducted such operatic and music theatre productions as
Era la notte, Lemoyne’s
Phèdre and Isouard’s
Cendrillon, Haydn’s
Armida, Sacchini’s
Chimène ou le Cid and Mozart’s
Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He has appeared as guest conductor with many other groups. With Le Concert de la Loge, he has recorded Haydn’s complete ‘Paris’ Symphonies. In 2020 he was the soloist in an album of concertos for Naïve’s Vivaldi Edition, which won a Diapason d’Or. In addition to his concert activities, Julien Chauvin also devotes himself to teaching in orchestral sessions or masterclasses at the Conservatoires Nationaux de Musique et de Danse of Paris and Lyon, at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes.
ABOUT LE CONCERT DE LA LOGE
In January 2015, the violinist Julien Chauvin founded a new period-instrument orchestra with the ambition of reviving an essential component of French musical history: the Concert de la Loge Olympique, founded in 1783, famous for commissioning Haydn’s ‘Paris’ Symphonies. The new, flexibly sized ensemble presents chamber, symphonic and vocal-operatic programs directed from the violin or the baton and champions a wide repertory ranging from the Baroque era to the early twentieth century. This recreative project also aims to explore new concert formats, harking back to the spontaneity of late-eighteenth-century practice. Since it was founded, the ensemble has toured many venues. It also enjoys regular collaborations with such renowned soloists as Karina Gauvin, Sandrine Piau, Philippe Jaroussky and Justin Taylor. On disc, the orchestra has recorded Haydn’s complete ‘Paris’ Symphonies. It also explores other repertories in need of rediscovery: the French
mélodie with orchestra (
Si j’ai aimé), the ‘salon symphony’, and rare violin concertos (Vivaldi Edition). Since the French National Olympic and Sports Committee opposed the ensemble’s use of the adjective ‘Olympique’, it was forced to truncate its historical name and adopt the designation ‘Le Concert de la Loge’ in June 2016.
ABOUT THE VIVALDI EDITION
Rarely has a collection of music manuscripts in the hand of an eighteenth-century composer and/or his scribes come down to us intact. The greater the fame of the composer, the more likely it was that the manuscripts would be hastily sold off for profit upon his death. Yet, serendipity would have it that in 1930, following multiple ownership over the centuries, the Italian National Library in Turin purchased the personal collection of autograph manuscripts by the great Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi. Without this fortuitous incident, we would forever have had only a very partial picture of a man who was arguably the most significant Italian composer of the eighteenth century. Known as the Foà and Giordano collection, after the donors who made the purchase possible, this assemblage of music scores contains nearly 450 works by Vivaldi: hundreds of concertos for various instruments and much vocal music, both secular and sacred. With few exceptions, it is the only source we have of his sacred music and operas, and until recently much of this music had never been heard by today’s public. Conceived by the Italian musicologist Alberto Basso at the beginning of this century, the ambitious Vivaldi Edition project set out to record this archive of music in its entirety. We now look back over nearly seventy titles, all categorized by genre and performed by many of the most notable specialists in historical performance practice today. Creating an aural rendering of this collection has significantly increased our knowledge and appreciation of Antonio Vivaldi and clarified his influence and decisive role in the history of Western music. Moreover, one must not underestimate the impact of more than one hundred hours of first-class works being made accessible to the music-loving public.
Bringing music manuscripts to life is a complex process, from the creation of a modern performing edition to interpretational decisions, rehearsals and performances. Yet, while performances are unique, they remain ephemeral. It is in the recording of this music that we are able to create lasting documents that will forevermore bear witness to its beauty. In so doing, we are also concluding the remarkable tale of Vivaldi’s personal collection of music manuscripts and its travels from Venice to Turin via Genoa and now out into the world at large. A collaboration and shared passion among numerous scholars, musicians and enthusiasts, the Vivaldi Edition, now two-thirds accomplished, forges ahead to completion. Deep gratitude and recognition go to the musicologist Alberto Basso, who conceived and spearheaded this project, and the Istituto per I Beni Musicali in Piemonte of which he is the founder. Together with the Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT and the Regione Piemonte, they generously funded the Vivaldi Edition for over a decade, and without their aid this project would never have become a reality.
