Recital Victor Julien-Laferrière, cello
- Date
- 30 March 2018 – 8:30pm
- Place
- Auditorium
Victor Julien-Laferrière, who won first prize at last year’s prestigious, international Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, is newly chosen as the winner of the 2018 Victoire de la Musique Classique in the category of instrumental soloist.
This Paris-trained musician is the new face of French cello, effortlessly executing the major classical works of his repertoire (such as Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, which placed the cello centre-stage when the instrument had long been considered inferior to the viola da gamba) alongside those of the 20th century: in Trois Strophes sur le Nom de Sacher by Henri Dutilleux, the cello is given a new language with which to serve as exquisite ambassador of a profoundly moving opus. The poetic world of Dutilleux dialogues with Hungarian Zoltàn Kodaly through the latter’s too-rare Sonata for Solo Cello. Composed in 1915, this work combines majestic virtuosity with memories drawn from popular music, extracting unprecedented sound from the cello: fiddle, cimbalom and percussion are born of the musician’s bow in this work.
the artist
Victor Julien-Laferrière
Winner of the top prize at the 2017 Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels, Victor Julien-Laferrière was also ranked first at the 2012 Prague Spring International Music Festival, and was named instrumental soloist of the year at the 2018 Victoires de la Musique Classique.
He began studying the cello with René Benedetti, then with Roland Pidoux at the CNSMDP (the French national conservatoire for music and dance in Paris), Heinrich Schiff at the University of Vienna, and Clemens Hagen at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Meanwhile, he attended the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy Switzerland.
In 2018 and 2019, Victor Julien-Laferrière was a guest of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / V. Gergiev, Orchestre National de France / E. Krivine, RTÉ Orchestra Dublin / N. Stutzmann, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse / T. Sokhiev, Orchestre National de Belgique / M. Emelyanychev, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra / J. Rozen / S. Denève, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie / Y. Abel, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris / D. Reiland, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne / J. Weilerstein, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan / Y. Kumehara, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / A. Joel, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia / O. Grangean.
He was also invited to play at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philharmonie de Paris, CelloBiennale in Amsterdam, Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Philharmonie Essen, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Louisiana Museum of Copenhagen, Fondation Louis Vuitton, KKL in Luzern, Tonhalle in Zurich, Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels, Phillips Collection in Washington, Prague Spring Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Gstaad, Klavier Festival in Ruhr, Rheingau Musik Festival, La Folle Journée in Nantes and Tokyo, Beauvais international music festival, and the Easter festival in Aix-en-Provence.
He won the 2017 Diapason d’Or for the recording he made with pianist Adam Laloum. In January 2019 (Mirare), he released an album entitled Schubert with the Les Esprits Trio (Sony Music). In the autumn of 2019, he brought out a recording with pianist Jonas Vitaud (Alpha Classics).
The programme
- Johann-Sebastian Bach
- Suite pour violoncelle seul n°3 en ut majeur
- Henri Dutilleux
- 3 strophes sur le nom de Sacher
- Zoltán Kodály
- Sonate pour violoncelle seul op.8
