account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
French Cello Sonatas II
César Franck, Gabriel Fauré

Julian Steckel / Paul Rivinius

French Cello Sonatas II

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533145
Catnr: AVI 8553314
Release date: 20 June 2014
Buy
1 CD
✓ in stock
€ 19.95
Buy
 
Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533145
Catalogue number
AVI 8553314
Release date
20 June 2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

César Franck, Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns not only have their Frenchness in common, but they were almost of the same generation. Born in 1835, Saint-Saens was admittedly the teacher and mentor of Fauré, who was ten years younger. Franck, the eldest of the three, was born in 1822. As children of their time, all three were strongly influenced by the (French) music of the 19th century. With careers lasting well on into early Modernism; they came to be regarded as forerunners – and also antipodes – of Debussy and Ravel, without being reduced to that role. In reality, each one of them was a truly independent creator.

"I have most definitely added Steckel to my short list of favorite living cellists, alongside Bailey, Isserlis, and Colin
Carr, and will most definitely be on the lookout for any new releases by him."
Fanfare 11-2011 Lynn René
Bayley

Artist(s)

Julian Steckel

“As an interpreter, I’ve started trusting my inner life more and letting the audience in,” he says. “It’s a kind of vulnerability that makes you stronger.” His first child was born at the end of 2018. Since then, his conviction has grown, his sense for metaphor expanded. He knows that making music for an audience occasionally involves tipping the scales too far one way or another. But he is aware of his responsibility toward what is often called the “intentions of the composer.” He dives deep into scores, investigating the organic connections that give a work its unity. “If you know one room in an apartment, but not that the apartment has seven other rooms, you won’t even understand the room you’re in,” he says. For Julian, these...
more
“As an interpreter, I’ve started trusting my inner life more and letting the audience in,” he says. “It’s a kind of vulnerability that makes you stronger.” His first child was born at the end of 2018. Since then, his conviction has grown, his sense for metaphor expanded.
He knows that making music for an audience occasionally involves tipping the scales too far one way or another. But he is aware of his responsibility toward what is often called the “intentions of the composer.” He dives deep into scores, investigating the organic connections that give a work its unity. “If you know one room in an apartment, but not that the apartment has seven other rooms, you won’t even understand the room you’re in,” he says.
For Julian, these experiences and encounters are the result of organic growth, not external pressure.
It’s a development that tends to happen when a musician of his ability goes through life with an open mind.
His playing is effortless, unhindered by technical boundaries. He derives energy from appearing not to try. It’s a quality that many look for and few find. He sees his talent and his musical upbringing as a gift. His mentors are responsible for the rest.
“My very first teacher considered lightness and simplicity to be at the core of cello playing,” Julian says. “Listen to yourself, plan what you’re doing, get it right the first time. I owe everything to these insights.” He studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. Now he is a teacher himself, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
On this recording Julian Steckel plays a cello by Andrea Guarneri (Cremona, 1685). When he’s not performing, he lives in Berlin.

less

Paul Rivinius

Born in 1970, Paul Rivinius received his first piano lessons at the age of five. His first teachers were Gustaf Grosch in Munich and Alexander Sellier, Walter Blankenheim and Nerine Barrett at the Saarbrücken College of Music. He continued his piano studies with Raymund Havenith and Gerhard Oppitz at the Munich College of Music, where he graduated with distinction in 1998. For many years Paul Rivinius was a member of the German National Youth Orchestra and of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. He also enjoyed considerable success with the Clemente Trio, an ensemble founded in 1986: the trio won the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 1998 and was subsequently selected as a „Rising Star“ ensemble, resulting in guest appearances in the ten most important...
more
Born in 1970, Paul Rivinius received his first piano lessons at the age of five. His first teachers were Gustaf Grosch in Munich and Alexander Sellier, Walter Blankenheim and Nerine Barrett at the Saarbrücken College of Music. He continued his piano studies with Raymund Havenith and Gerhard Oppitz at the Munich College of Music, where he graduated with distinction in 1998.
For many years Paul Rivinius was a member of the German National Youth Orchestra and of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado.
He also enjoyed considerable success with the Clemente Trio, an ensemble founded in 1986: the trio won the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 1998 and was subsequently selected as a „Rising Star“ ensemble, resulting in guest appearances in the ten most important concert halls in the world, including the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Wigmore Hall in London.
He also plays alongside his brothers in the Rivinius Piano Quartet, and since 2004 he has been the pianist of the Mozart Piano Quartet, which performs throughout Europe, North and South America.
Paul Rivinius taught for many years as a professor of chamber music at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin; he now lives as a freelance pianist in Munich.

less

Composer(s)

César Franck

César Franck was simultaneously a child prodigy and a late bloomer. His parents quickly discovered his enormous talent, but they were mostly interested in the money and fame that he might generate. Because of this, he was presented as a piano virtuoso, without a focus on composition. Unfortunately, his virtuoso career was less promising then they had hoped, and he started earning his money more as a teacher and organist. Composing stayed in the background, but in the mean time he did get some notable students, such as Henri Duparc. After a while, a sort of 'Franck school' of students arose, albeit against his will, who affectionately called him ‘Pater seraphicus’. It was not until he was 50 before he started...
more
César Franck was simultaneously a child prodigy and a late bloomer. His parents quickly discovered his enormous talent, but they were mostly interested in the money and fame that he might generate. Because of this, he was presented as a piano virtuoso, without a focus on composition. Unfortunately, his virtuoso career was less promising then they had hoped, and he started earning his money more as a teacher and organist. Composing stayed in the background, but in the mean time he did get some notable students, such as Henri Duparc. After a while, a sort of "Franck school" of students arose, albeit against his will, who affectionately called him ‘Pater seraphicus’. It was not until he was 50 before he started to receive some acclaim as a composer, and from his 52nd he started a very prolific period, lasting until his death at the age of 68.
Nowadays, Franck is mostly known for his instrumental music, peaking at the famous Violin Sonata in A. Besides this work,, his small collection of organ works was particularly influential.
less

Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style. Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death,...
more
Gabriel Fauré was a French Romantic composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Nocturnes for piano and the songs Après un rêve and Clair de lune. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.
Fauré's music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of Fauré's death, jazz and the atonal music of the Second Viennese School were being heard. During the last twenty years of his life, he suffered from increasing deafness. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his works from this period are sometimes elusive and withdrawn in character, and at other times turbulent and impassioned.

less

Press

Play album Play album

You might also like..

Johanna Senfter, Max Reger
Max Reger & Johanna Senfter, Clarinet Quintets
Kilian Herold & Armida Quartett
Ernst Křenek, Johannes Brahms
Brahms & Krenek, Piano Trios
Feininger Trio
Various composers
Vers la flamme
Severin von Eckardstein
Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven
Hommage à Beethoven
Aris Alexander Blettenberg
Frank Martin, César Franck
Franck & Martin, Piano Quintets
Martin Klett & Armida Quartett
Max Reger
Piano Concerto - Live Recording (vinyl)
Markus Becker
Robert Schumann, York Höller
Edition Klavierfestival Ruhr Vol. 41
Various Artists
Franz Schubert, Leoš Janáček
Soulmates
Herbert Schuch
Egon Kornauth, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Johannes Brahms
Vienna 1913
Kilian Herold & Hansjacob Staemmler
Johannes Brahms, Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Brahms & Korngold, Piano Trios
Feininger Trio
Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann
Clara & Robert Schumann
Sophie Wang & Florian Glemser
Franz Liszt
Der du von dem Himmel bist
Konstantin Krimmel & Daniel Heide