Joseph Boulogne / Chevalier de Saint-Georges

[MishaK]

Since there is no shortage of folks here who are interested in off the beaten path music, I thought I'd bring to your attention this excellent article that appeared in the New York Times the other day by Marcos Balter (a fine composer in his own right) about the neglected French-Guadeloupean composer Joseph Boulogne aka Chevalier de Saint Georges:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/arts/music/black-mozart-joseph-boulogne.html

Balter helpfully includes audio clips of some of Boulogne's works. I've poked around a bit on Primephonic as well and found a really fine recording with Rachel Barton Pine playing his second violin concerto. That's some really virtuosic stuff that asks the violinist to perform quite a high wire act on the E string in the slow movement. Unlike Barton Pine's, some other recordings seem to suffer from a bit of lack of commitment by the performers (such as a decidedly meh album by Tafelmusik). If any of you have some other recording recommendations for Boulogne's music, please feel free to post here.

[André]

I have that Tafelmusik disc as well as a 4cd set on the Arion label, with concertos, symphonies, string quartets and violin sonatas. He is definitely a musician of some talent and originality - on the level of Leclair maybe, if less playful than Corrette. The Arion set is an excellent introduction to his work.

[Pizzicato-Polka]

I just listened to his symphonies (from this release https://www.discogs.com/release/20375989-Joseph-Boulogne-Chevalier-De-Saint-Georges-Yury-Revich-Libor-Je%C5%BEek-Pavla-Honsov%C3%A1-Czech-Chamber-Phi ) and to violin concerto in D Major Op. 3, and I enjoyed all of it quite a lot! Allegro maestoso from that violin concerto was especially wonderful. I'm looking forward to listening more to him in the future! It's only a pity that the only album with his compositions available in my country is the one I linked to (well, this one and the violin concertos by Naxos, but the latter is only available on Amazon Poland, which, as all Amazons, is notorious for bad packaging for CDs/DVDs, so I wouldn't risk it).

[joachim]

I don't quite understand: there is no CD of the Chevalier de Saint-George outside of France or Belgium?

Yet we find many of his works on Youtube, such as this very beautiful concerto en la majeur op. 5 n° 2

[JBS]

I don't quite understand: there is no CD of the Chevalier de Saint-George outside of France or Belgium?

Yet we find many of his works on Youtube, such as this very beautiful concerto en la majeur op. 5 n° 2

There have been a couple released in the last year or so.
This is brand new

[Mapman]

Here's my recent post from Current Listening:

Saint-George: Violin Concerto in B flat Major, Op.7/2
Vilimec; Preisler: Pilsen Philharmonic

This is good Classical period music, well-performed by the Czech musicians. The tunes seem good; I'd probably remember them after a couple more listens. Sadly the recording quality is not that great. I can't quite describe what is wrong, but it just doesn't sound right. The horns are fairly buried.

For the Americans here, this disc (and volume 3 in the series, which includes Op.5/2 that @joachim mentioned) are available from BRO. There are also a couple discs of violin concertos on Naxos that seem fairly available.

I have Rachel Barton-Pine's recording of Op.5/2, which I'll check out at some point.

[Jchalley]

Tout savoir sur Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
All you have to  about Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
Posted by Jean-Claude HALLEY living in Guadeloupe the country of Joseph Bologne, Président of THE FRIENDS OF CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES.

[brewski]

Researching a bit about Bologne, I stumbled across the Los Angeles Opera production of The Anonymous Lover, presented in 2020, and still available to view at no charge on the company's website, here.

-Bruce