Solenne Païdassi, First Long Thibaud Price 2010:

The French violinist Solenne Païdassi studied in Nice, Geneva, London, Hamburg and Philadelphia, and has won many prizes at international competitions: Hanover, Sion, Gyeongnam (Korea), Kiev, Warsaw, and in 2010 the Long-Thibaud Competition.

For this, her first recital for the Aparté label, she has chosen a programme of narrative works by the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (born in Ukraine) and Russian-born Igor Stravinsky.

With 'Myths. Three Poems for violin and piano', Op. 30 (1915), inspired by Greek legends, Szymanowski declared that he had created ‘a new mode of expression for the violin’. The nymph Arethusa is transformed into a spring by Artemis to escape the advances of the god Alpheius in The Fountain of Arethusa; Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection in the clear water (Narcissus); the god Pan lasciviously chases the wood nymphs in Dryads and Pan.

Before the War, Szymanowski had rented an apartment in Vienna, but had found the city’s cultural life enclosed and stifling. The 'Three Paganini Caprices', Op. 40 (1918), are a wry comment both on that city and on Paganini. The Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la fée' (The Fairy's Kiss) is a concert suite for orchestra, based on music from Stravinsky's ballet. The latter, inspired by Andersen’s tale The Ice-Maiden, was written in tribute to Tchaikovsky and makes use of melodies from some of his early works. Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella, written for Diaghilev and borrowing themes and textures from the Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi, recounts the amorous adventures of the traditional character of the popular Neapolitan stage, Pulcinella. Solenne Païdassi takes us into another world, full of warmth and colour, whimsicality, sensuality…