From Liège to Paris

Three key works of the «French» violin school – although only Francis Poulenc was born in France. Eugène Ysaÿe came from Liège and was Belgian. César Franck was also born in Liège, his parents were Belgian and German, but the family moved to Paris following the young César‘s first music lessons. There, Franck matured into the most significant classicist of the French Romantic tradition  and enjoyed great success, not only with his compositions but also for many years as organist of Ste-Clotilde church. Eugène Ysaÿe, on the other hand, never became a settled musician, but remained a travelling violin virtuoso, always on the road on long tours. Franck, who admired him, dedicated his famous A major Violin Sonata to him as a wedding gift. A true Parisian, Francis Poulenc was a composer with many faces. Frivolous nonsense and religious spirituality, nightclub and monastery were not mutually exclusive for him. «I am a composer without a label», he said proudly, and you can hear that in his music. He was certainly one of the most renowned and ingenious representatives of French modernism at the time.