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Le Mozart Noir (CD)

Regular Price: $17.98

Released: March 1, 2003
Product ID: 5225

2004 JUNO AWARDS: NOMINATED FOR BEST CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR (LARGE ENSEMBLE)

"After reading a book about Saint-Georges and discovering his music, I knew that we had to tell his fascinating story. His life was remarkable, and his music deserves to be heard."

So remarked JEANNE LAMON, Music Director for the TAFELMUSIK ORCHESTRA, and so began a journey into the music of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (ca.1739-1799), a composer and violinist working at the time of Mozart who occupied a unique place in 18th-century France as a black man in aristocratic society. This musical journey is released here on a new compact disc, but it is also the soundtrack (and more) to the international documentary film, Le Mozart Noir, produced by Toronto-based Media Headquarters in collaboration with Tafelmusik.

Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was widely regarded as the most accomplished man of his age. Not only was he among the most important musicians in Paris during the pre-Revolutionary period, but he was also a superb all-round athlete and man of arms. Among connoisseurs of the art of fencing, Saint-Georges was considered the finest swordsman in Europe, possessed extraordinary speed, flexibility and grace, qualities which he also exhibited in abundance as a violinist. The combination of artist, athlete and man of action – for he also held military commands during the Revolutionary period – is unique in the history of music and the man himself scarcely less extraordinary than the phenomenal range of his talents.

This recording includes a selection of the orchestral works of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, as well as the works of two of his mentors, Jean-Marie Leclair and François-Joseph Gossec. Both of Saint-Georges’ two extant symphonies are included. He used the second of these as the overture to his opera L’amant anonyme, and we have appended a few dances from the opera. Saint-Georges’ strongest compositions are those in which his bow guided the pen, that is, the many concertos and ‘sinfonie concertantes’ for solo violin(s). His remarkable skill as a player inspires works that are virtuosic, lyrical and often playful. Tafelmusik members, LINDA MELSTED and GENEVIÈVE GILARDEAU are the featured violinists.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
Jeanne Lamon Music Director

	L'amant anonyme (1780) - Ouverture	7:41
	Allegro	7:15
	L'amant anonyme (1780) - Excerpts from ballet	6:35
	Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 3, no. 1 (1774)	21:07
	Symphony in G Major, op. 11, no. 1 (1779)	14:20
	Symphony in D Major, op. 5, no. 5 "Pastorella" (c1761-2)	15:43