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When
young violin player Gérard Poulet recorded for the Remington
label in Vienna he was about 13 years old.
If you want to know what the term 'child-prodigy' means, you simply
should listen to Mozart's G Major Concerto K216 played by young Gérard
Poulet.
His performance recorded with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra is lyrical,
has perfect timing and beautiful phrasing, and the young violinist has
an outstanding technique.
The mature interpretation
has no haste, but depth and calmness when demanded and lightness in
the outer movements.
This not only proves Gerard Poulet's musicianship but also the excellent
teachers he must have had all along. One of them is the father of the
talented youngster, Gaston Poulet, himself a noted violinist, conductor
and pedagogue.
The recording was made for Remington Records in 1952 in Vienna (at the
time when Michèle Auclair made her Kreisler Favorites recordings).
The same characterization goes for Mozart's D Major Concerto K 218,
also conducted by Gaston Poulet. Although Heifetz and Goldberg were
preferred by many, the critics were very positive about these performances.
Mozart's K216
can be found on R-199-131. Critic Warren DeMotte writes
in The
Long Playing Record Guide:
'The Poulets are a father and son team to be reckoned with. The youth
fiddles with more than a modicum of understanding; his father wields
a perceptive baton.'
And DeMotte characterizes the K218 performance on R-199-125
as follows:
'Young Gérard Poulet is astonishingly mature in his interpretation
and fiddling technique; father Gaston's part in their collaboration
is admirable.'
Music critic B.H. Haggin evaluates these recordings in his book “The
Listener’s Musical Companion” as follows:
“Concertos
for Violin. K 216 and 218 are played by thirteen-year old
Gerard Poulet with youthful warmth and purity and extraordinarily
sentient inflection that make these two of the most remarkable
and beautiful performances on records; and the playing of the
Austrian Symphony under his father Gaston Poulet also is outstanding."
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Note: Other Violin
Concertos by Mozart were recorded by Eva Hitzker with Fritz Weidlich
conducting on R-149-37 (K219), and K271a by Helen
Airoff with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kurt
Wöss on R-199-46.
The cover of R-199-131
gives the following information about father and son:
Gaston Poulet
is one of the permanent conductors of the famous Colonne Orchestra
of Paris. He began his career as a violinist and made his debut
as conductor in Paris in 1926 where the "Poulet Concerts"
became an established event under his baton. He is best known
in France but has traveled throughout Europe conducting the
major orchestras of Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, England,
Holland, Italy and Spain.
Gérard
Poulet, the son of Gaston Poulet, is a child-prodigy, who has
already established a name for himself in Europe. Born in 1939,
by 1951 he had completed his studies at the Paris Conservatory
and won by unanimous vote First Prize. His debut in December
1951 with the Colonne Orchestra was an outstanding success and
he has since toured England in concert and been widely acclaimed
in that country.
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Gérard Poulet
was born on 12th of August 1938 (and not 1939 as the cover states) in
Bayonne in the south of France. At the early age of 5 he showed his
disposition and at the age of 11 he entered the Paris Conservatory where
he studied with André Asselin. His first appearance in concert
performing Mendelssohn and Lalo (with his father conducting the 'Orchestre
des Concerts Colonne') gave him instant fame and resulted in appearances
in other cities in Europe and brought him to perform in Vienna where
the recordings for the Remington label were made.
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Gérard
Poulet (image courtesy Municipality of Genoa - Paganini Competition
Secretariat)
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At 18 he was awarded
the Premio Paganini at the contest in Genoa and there he played on Paganini's
violin. He studied further with Zino Francescati, Yehudi Menuhin, Nathan
Milstein and above all Henryk Szeryng. And from then on he not only
concertizes in France's important cities and the music centers of most
European countries, but he travels all over the world from China and
Japan to the US and Canada, from Tunesia to Brazil and Argentine.
His repertoire:
Bartok, Fauré, Franck, Lekeu, Schubert, Stravinski and Bach (complete
Sonatas and Partitas).
With harpsichordist Blandine Verlet he recorded the early Mozart Sonatas
for Philips (6747 200).
On Philips 9500 158 from 1976 he plays Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins
together with Henryk Szeryng, Maurice Hanson and Claire Bernard, Henryk
Szeryng conducting the English Chamber Orchestra.
On Déesse DDLX 58 he plays solo pieces by Schubert, Ravel, Brahms,
Paganini, Dvorak, Wieniawski and Bloch, with Maurice Blanchot at the
piano.
Gérard Poulet
is currently professor at the 'Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique
de Paris', gives master classes and often
is a jury member at mayor contests.
Rudolf A. Bruil,
summer 2002
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