Fin de siècle: Late Romantic Music for Viola & Piano

Featuring

Lawrence Power
Simon Crawford-Phillips
Henri Büsser
Georges Hüe
Reynaldo Hahn
Claude Debussy

Ernest Chausson
Léon Honnoré
Louis Vierne
Lucien Durosoir
George Enescu
Maurice Ravel

Did you know?

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Recording & Production

The album features three first recordings: Henri Büsser's Appassionato, Georges Hüe's Thème varié, and Léon Honnoré's Morceau de concert.

Composition History

Théophile Laforge, the first viola professor at the Paris Conservatoire, encouraged contemporary composers to write solo works for the viola and included them in his class syllabus.

Compositional Technique

Claude Debussy's early work Beau soir, featured on this album, already shows harmonically adventurous traits and instances of parallel chords, which became a hallmark of his later style.

Album & Artwork

This album, titled "Fin de Siècle," brings together diverse musical voices from late 19th and early 20th century France, a period often synonymous with Impressionism.

Composition History

Several works on this album, including Büsser's Appassionato and Enescu's Concertstück, were dedicated to Théophile Laforge, the first professor of viola at the Paris Conservatoire.

Composer Biography

Maurice Ravel's repeated failure to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, despite the quality of his music, caused a national scandal known as the 'Affaire Ravel'.

Performer Biography

Lawrence Power, the violist on this recording, was shortlisted for the 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award and is a keen champion of contemporary music.