Pierre RODE Violin Concertos Nos. 7, 10 and 13 Friedemann Eichhorn, Violin South West German Radio Orchestra, Kaiserslautern Nicolás Pasquet
Pierre Rode (1774 1830) Violin Concertos Nos. 7, 10 and 13 Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode was born in Bordeaux on 16th February, 1774. The son of a perfumer, he showed early musical precosity and was taken to Paris at the age of thirteen by his teacher, Flauvel. Shortly after his arrival in Paris, Rode became the star pupil of Giovanni Battista Viotti, the foremost violinist of the day and the founder of the modern French violin school. In 1790 he made his solo début in Viotti s Violin Concerto No. 13; he also joined the orchestra at the Théâtre de Monsieur, where he met his longtime colleague Pierre Baillot. Rode s breakout year was 1792. During the traditional Holy Week concerts, Rode performed six times between the 1st and 13th April, these perfomances included two Viotti concertos, one a première. During the next sixteen years Rode lived the life of a travelling virtuoso, though he also joined the violin department of the newly organized Paris Conservatoire. There he collaborated with Baillot and Kreutzer on a manual of instruction for the violin. Rode was named solo violinist for the musique particulière of the First Consul, Napoleon, and was briefly solo violinist at the Opéra. Rode spent the years from 1804 to 1808 in Russia, where he was appointed court violinist to the Tsar. His return to Paris after his Russian sojourn marked a change in his fortunes. Instead of the wave of success he had ridden since he emerged from Bordeaux at the age of thirteen, the public responded only tepidly to his playing. Spohr, who heard him both before and after his Russian adventure, wrote that after Russia he found Rode s playing cold and full of mannerism. Rode again began travelling across Europe in 1811. In Vienna at the end of 1812, he gave the première of Beethoven s Violin Sonata, Op. 96 with Archduke Rudolph. He spent the years 1814 to 1821 in Berlin, where he met and married his wife and became an intimate friend of the Mendelssohn family. The mother of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn wrote that, when Rode and his wife left, the charm of our musical winter evenings dwindled completely. In 1821 Rode returned to the Bordeaux area where he now lived in semi-retirement. In 1828 he made a last attempt at a public concert in Paris. The concert was such a fiasco that some commentators believed it hastened his death on 25th November, 1830. The concertos of Rode were born at a time of social and musical tumult. The era of Rode s greatest fame coincided with the beheading of Louis XVI, the violence and upheaval of the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, and the ensuing Napoleonic wars. Even a relatively non-political musician such as Viotti found life transformed in the 1790s: as a foreigner Viotti incurred the suspicion of both royalists and revolutionists and was forced to leave Paris in 1792. Rode and his Viotti-influenced colleagues had learned their lessons well, and the style and technique of the French school concertos influenced Beethoven and the larger tradition of the concerto. This style included a more heroic rôle for the soloist and a greater expressiveness partly due to the possibilities of the new Tourte bow. After the ousting of Louis XVI and the establishment of the Republic, old royalist institutions were remade in a burst of enthusiasm and energy. One of the new institutions designed to replace old royal or church establishments was the Paris Conservatoire, formally chartered by law in 1795. Rode was among the first violin professors there, and one of the first tasks of Rode and his colleagues was to produce a 2
manual of instruction. The pedagogical element was never far from the surface for Rode and his colleagues, and was part and parcel of the energy released by the Revolution. Both Rode s 24 Caprices and Kreutzer s 40 (later 42) Etudes remain among the most studied violin pedagogical works ever written. Besides the pedagogical element that went hand in hand with the new beginning envisioned by the Revolution, Rode s time and place was eminently an age of opera, and Rode s concertos, with their emphasis on the singing line, reflect this. His solo début in 1790 was reputedly given between acts in the opera, and the Holy Week concerts of 1792 were given during the time of year that theatres were closed by law. The last years of the eighteenth century also saw the flowering of romanticism. As classical as the concertos of Rode and his colleagues now sound to modern ears, the aim of the French school composers was thoroughly romantic. This is made clear in Pierre Baillot s summing up of French school theory and technique The Art of the Violin, which states that the violinist s inspirations seem to spring from the heart of this creative enthusiasm [for nature]. Rode s music is a reflection of a new romantic sensibility that casts the soloist as virtuoso and hero. His music was born in tumult and revolution, and his concertos are crucial in the development of the art of the violin and especially the violin concerto. Rode s thirteen violin concertos, despite holding the interest of the nineteenth century (Wieniawski wrote a cadenza for Rode s Violin Concerto No. 7), have fallen into obscurity. His best known composition is the Violin Concerto No. 7 in A minor, probably written in 1803. This concerto, along with Violin Concerto No. 1, was one of the very few works (besides his own) that Paganini consented to play. Typically the first movements of Rode concertos 3 feature a moderato or similar tempo and three solo sections. The first solo is the longest and weightiest, and the second solo section is usually in the nature of a contrasting section rather than a development of previous thematic material. The final solo section usually repeats thematic material from the first section, though sometimes Rode introduces new material in this section as well. In the first movement of Concerto No. 7, marked Moderato, the soloist enters after the orchestral introduction with a theme that begins with the descending A minor triad. After passage-work and a shift to the major, the soloist sings a lovely dolce theme (heard previously in the orchestral introduction). The movement reworks these elements, a cadenza serving as bridge between the second and third solo sections. The Adagio is a song in ABA form, while the Rondo is a lively piece written in Rode s best goodhumoured vein. The first movement, Moderato, of Rode s Violin Concerto No. 10 in B minor, probably written between 1804 and 1808, begins with a martial orchestral statement, and, unlike Concerto No. 7, includes trumpets in the orchestra. After the usual peregrinations, the soloist emerges with a dramatic lyrical statement that, after passage-work, devolves to one of Rode s signature dolce themes; the first solo ends in a flurry of passage-work ending on a trill. The soloist s next entrance features a passage in double stops (relatively rare in Rode) and later triplets. From his Eighth Concerto onward Rode often connected his second and third movements by a cadenza for solo violin, and he follows that procedure in the Adagio of his Tenth Concerto. The ensuing Tempo di polacca is a delightful and sparkling conclusion to the concerto. Rode s Violin Concerto No. 13, in F sharp minor / A major was published posthumously, and is dedicated to Rode s old colleague Baillot. The opening Allegro
comodo begins quietly with a theme beginning with a half note (minim); this theme will be taken up by the soloist and will form a pattern, half note (minim) followed by quarters (crotchets), eighths (quavers), triplets, that will unify the movement. The beautiful Adagio, as in Concerto No. 10, leads via a cadenza to the finale, in this case a spritely 6/8 Allegretto, effectively and joyously bringing the thirteen concertos to a close. Bruce R. Schueneman Friedemann Eichhorn Friedemann Eichhorn was born in the German city of Münster in 1971. He studied violin with Valery Gradow in Mannheim, Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and with Margaret Pardee at the Juilliard School New York. He also studied musicology and law at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz where he received a Ph.D. He has performed with Yehudi Menuhin, Igor Oistrakh, Gidon Kremer, Saschko Gawriloff and Yuri Bashmet and has appeared in international music centres. Friedemann Eichhorn was appointed as one of the youngest professors of violin at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar in 2002. He is head of the String Department and Artistic Director of the International Louis-Spohr-Competition. Since 2007 he has also taught at the Summer Academy of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He has won many awards including the George Enescu Medal from the Rumanian Cultural Institute, and edits violin works for Schott. He has written a number of articles for Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. www.friedemanneichhorn.com 4
SWR Radio Orchestra Kaiserslautern Photograph by Isabelle Girard Established in the years after the war, the SWR Radio Orchestra was formed by the amalgamation in 1951 of the light music orchestras of Kaiserslautern and Koblenz, to win an international reputation under Emmerich Smola, principal conductor until 1987, to be followed by Klaus Arp (1987-1995), Peter Falk (1995-2001) and Grzegorz Nowak (2001-004). The orchestra has collaborated with leading German composers of popular music and with distinguished soloists and guest conductors, with an increasingly wide repertoire in concert performances, broadcasts, film music, recordings and opera. In September 2007 the SWR Radio Orchestra merged with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra to become the German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern. 5
Nicolás Pasquet Nicolás Pasquet was born in 1958 in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he studied violin and conducting at the State Music Academy, before continuing his studies in Germany in Nuremberg and Stuttgart. In 1984 and 1986 he won the National Competition for Young Conductors of the German Council of Music, and in 1987 he won first prize at the 37th International Conducting Competition in Besançon. He has guest-conducted numerous renowned German and foreign orchestras, including the Stuttgart Philharmonic, NDR Hannover, Hamburg Philharmonic, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Brisbane Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra and many others. He has served as Chief Conductor of the Pécs National Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie and the Coburg Theatre Orchestra. He is Professor of Conducting at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar, where he coaches an international conducting course and is Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. Get this free download from Classicsonline! Viotti: Violin Sinfonia Concertante No. 1 in F major: III. Rondo: (Allegro) Copy this Promotion Code NaxSmxmwPkWQ and go to www.classicsonline.com/mpkey/viot6_main Downloading Instructions 1 Log on to Classicsonline. If you do not have a Classicsonline account yet, please register at http://www.classicsonline.com/userlogin/signup.aspx. 2 Enter the Promotion Code mentioned above. 3 On the next screen, click on Add to My Downloads. 6
19 TH C E N T U R Y V I O L I N I S T C O M P O S E R S
NAXOS RODE: Violin Concertos, Nos. 7, 10 and 13 A student of Viotti, Pierre Rode was an eminent violinist active in early 19th century Paris who helped found the influential French violin school. Respected by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Spohr, among others, Rode is mostly known for his 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, yet his 13 Violin Concertos are rarely if ever played. Friedemann Eichhorn, the soloist on this world première recording, has commented: Working with these scores was a wonderful adventure... Rode uses sophisticated and often rich orchestration... As a counterpoint to effective virtuoso violin writing, Rode emphasizes the singing quality of his instrument. The Violin Concerto No. 7, the best known of the Concertos, was a favourite of Wieniawski, and one of the very few works (besides his own) that Paganini consented to play. Pierre RODE (1774-1830) Violin Concerto No. 7 in A minor, Op. 9 17:53 1 Moderato 9:12 2 Adagio 3:43 3 Rondo 4:58 Violin Concerto No. 10 in B minor, Op. 19 20:14 4 Moderato 10:43 5 Adagio 3:37 6 Tempo di polacca 5:54 Violin Concerto No. 13 in F sharp minor / A major, Op. post. 19:53 7 Allegro comodo 9:57 8 Adagio 4:14 9 Allegretto 5:41 Friedemann Eichhorn, Violin South West German Radio Orchestra, Kaiserslautern Nicolás Pasquet Includes Free Downloadable Bonus Track available at www.classicsonline.com. Please see inside booklet for full details. Recorded at the SWR Studio, Kaiserlautern, Germany, from 29th January to 1st February and from 6th to 9th February 2007 Producer and Editor: Ralf Kolbinger Engineer: Reiner Neumann A co-production with Südwestrundfunk Research: Jonathan Frohnen Booklet notes: Bruce R Schueneman Cover Picture: Pierre Rode by Benjamin Chai DDD Playing Time 58:00 Booklet notes in English Disc Made in Canada Printed & Assembled in USA www.naxos.com & 2009 Naxos Rights International Ltd. NAXOS RODE: Violin Concertos, Nos. 7, 10 and 13