Nicolas Dautricourt & Dana Ciocarli – Benjamin Godard: Complete Violin Sonatas (2016) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

In 1863 Martine de Béhague’s grandmother bought the site where the Romanian Embassy now stands. She commissioned Gabriel Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur (1822-1893), the architect who restored the châteaux of Courances and Vaux-le-Vicomte, to build a Louis XV-style town house that would be an appropriate setting for her collection of 18th-century artefacts she planned to house there. The architect was internationally renowned, had connections with the Imperial family and had worked for the Rothschilds in Vienna among others. Destailleur owned an impressive collection of architectural plans and fittings. His profound understanding of period décor made him superbly quali ed. He also had access to period panelling and decorative embellishments that had come onto the market as a result of Haussmann’s innovations. The writer Henri de Régnier singled out the building as “one of the most beautiful houses in our city.” On March 27, 1939, the building was sold to the Romanian State and used to house its embassy.

In 1897/98, Gustave-Adolphe Gerhardt (1843-1921), a winner of the Prix de Rome for Architecture, architect of a number of notable residences and responsible for the restoration of the Collège de France, designed and completed a full-scale concert hall and private theatre, later named La Salle Byzantine, that drew on ancient basilical plans and con gurations of Byzantine churches. The theatre also served as a museum. Various sources suggest musical instruments and pain- tings were displayed there. In 1900, Le Monde Musical wrote that the hall could accommodate 600 people and that a large organ was installed there. The organ still stands in part and is one of the rare examples of an extant non-religious organ from the beginning of the 20th-century still in existence. …

Tracklist:
Benjamin Godard (1849 – 1895)
01. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 3 en Sol Mineur, Op. 9: I. Allegro moderato
02. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 3 en Sol Mineur, Op. 9: II. Scherzo (non troppo vivace)
03. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 3 en Sol Mineur, Op. 9: III. Andante
04. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 3 en Sol Mineur, Op. 9: IV. Intermezzo (un poco moderato)
05. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 3 en Sol Mineur, Op. 9: V. Allegro
06. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 1 en Do Mineur, Op. 1: I. Andante
07. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 1 en Do Mineur, Op. 1: II. Scherzo
08. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 1 en Do Mineur, Op. 1: III. Andante
09. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 1 en Do Mineur, Op. 1: IV. Finale (allegro vivace)
01. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 4 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 12: I. Vivace ma non troppo
02. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 4 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 12: II. Allegro vivace ma non presto
03. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 4 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 12: III. Andante
04. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 4 en La Bémol Majeur, Op. 12: IV. Allegro molto
05. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 2 en La Mineur, Op. 2: I. Andante-allegro vivace e appassionato
06. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 2 en La Mineur, Op. 2: II. Intermezzo (vivace)
07. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 2 en La Mineur, Op. 2: III. Andante quasi adagio
08. Sonate pour violon et piano No. 2 en La Mineur, Op. 2: IV. Finale (allegro)