TOMASI (complete violin works)

Henri Tomasi is one of the great figures of 20th-century French music. The catalogue of his works, which comprises over a hundred opuses, features many splendid stage and concert scores. His main lyrical works, Don Juan de Mañara, L'Atlantide, Sampieru Corsu and Le Silence de la mer have been performed successfully both in France and abroad. His many concertos, performed since their creation by great soloists, are now part of the international repertoire. Tomasi is also the author of two important symphonies and a striking Requiem for Peace, as well as numerous pieces of chamber music. The works for violin gathered in this album belong to different periods of the composer's life, from his early youth (Poème for Violin and Piano) to his first Parisian successes in the 1930s (Paghiella, Chant hébraïque, Tristesse d'Antar, Chant corse and Capriccio) and the last stage of his life (Violin Concerto 'Périple d'Ulysse').

In 1927, after distinguished studies at the Paris Conservatory, he simultaneously obtained a unanimous First Prize for conducting and a Grand Prix de Rome for musical composition. From then on, the musician's double career took off. Quickly becoming a recognised conductor, he was called upon to lead major French ensembles, including the National Orchestra, and after 1945, ensembles throughout Europe, such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Opéra de Monte-Carlo. His works, noticed by critics and favorably received by the public, also receive recognition from his peers. In 1952 he won the Grand Prix de la Musique Française (SACEM) and in 1960 the Grand Prix Musical awarded by the city of Paris. The Capriccio for violin of the 1930s, which is particularly virtuosic, is heard in extreme contrast with the concerto Périple d'Ulysse of the 1960s, which is certainly still virtuosic, but emblematic of the renewal of Tomasi's writing, now turned towards an atonalism that does not renounce lyricism, a cardinal value for him.

This complete set of violin pieces reflects and reveals the mastery of Henri Tomasi's instrumental and orchestral writing. It is the work of one of the major composers of the 20th century.