Christian Ferras

Christian Ferras (born June 17, 1933 in Le Touquet , † September 14, 1982 in Paris ) was a French violinist .

Childhood & adolescence

His father, Robert, was a hotelier and a former violin student of Marcel Chailley , who had been a close friend and admirer of Camille Saint-Saëns . Christian was a very talented student and made phenomenal progress under the watchful eye of his father. In 1941, just 8 years old, Christian Ferras began his studies at the Conservatory of Music in Nice with Charles Bistesi, who had been a student of Eugène Ysaÿe . The following year he made his first public appearance, and in 1943 he won 1st prize at the Conservatory.

After studying at the Paris Conservatory, Ferras won the local violin and chamber music prize and began studying with René Benedetti and Joseph Calvet . At the age of 13 he made his professional debut with the Pasdeloup Orchestra under Albert Wolff with Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and a week later with the violin concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven . During this time Ferras also studied with Paul Paray and George Enescu . From the latter, he particularly adopted his characteristic way of changing registers and the shimmering sound.

In 1947 his first recording with Decca followed with the concert by Federico Elizalde. In 1948 he won the international Scheveningen competition, in which Yehudi Menuhin was one of the judges and in which Michel Schwalbé also took part, who would later become the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert Karajan. It was during this competition that Ferras first met Pierre Barbizet, who would later become his longtime piano accompanist. In the same year the world premiere of Arthur Honegger's violin sonata followed, at which time Ferras was only 15 years old. In 1949 Ferras won 2nd prize at the Long Thibaud Competition in Paris, a 1st prize was not awarded.

World success

Ferras' career took a big step forward in November 1951 when he was invited by Karl Böhm to play Beethoven's violin concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker. This was followed by worldwide engagements with other famous conductors such as Herbert Karajan , Charles Munch , Ernest Ansermet , Carl Schuricht , and collaborations with other instrumentalists such as Pablo Casals , Paul Tortelier , Pierre Fournier , Jean-Pierre Rampal and Wilhelm Kempff . By the late 1960s, Ferras was a widely acclaimed violinist, having won nine Grand Prix du Disque , among others .

Colleagues like Zino Francescatti described his way of playing the violin as "musical perfection". Herbert Karajan said of him: “He had an intuitive talent for conveying feelings to others through his play”. Although mostly active in the field of classical and romanticism, Ferras was particularly committed to modern music and performed many works for the first time. These include works by Gyula Bando, Ivan Semenoff, Serge Nigg and Joaquín Rodrigo .

Withdrawal & death

In the late 1960s, his problems with depression and alcohol began . He became moody and unreliable and began to withdraw from the concert stage. In 1975 he accepted an offer for a professorship at the Paris Conservatory and did not appear publicly for the next seven years.

Quite surprisingly, Ferras returned to the concert stage in Paris on March 9, 1982. Although several concerts followed and he was also certified as a success, Ferras was still very unstable inside. On August 25, 1982 he played his last concert in Vichy . Three weeks later, Ferras committed suicide at the age of 49. His remains were interred in Cachan, south of Paris.

swell

• Julian Haylock: A falling star: Christian Ferras reconsidered CD booklet for Christian Ferras - Brahms, Schumann, Franck, Lekeu - Violin Sonatas , Brilliant Classics, 2009