Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Born: December 25, 1745, Baillif, Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
Died: June 10, 1799, Paris, France
Joseph Boulogne’s father was a wealthy plantation owner, and his mother one of his father’s slaves. Educated in Paris, Boulogne first gained notoriety in his teens as a fencing master. He was made an officer of the king’s bodyguard and a chevalier at age 21. Little is known about his musical training, although he became famous as a virtuoso violinist. Saint-Georges later became the music director of Le Concert de la Loge Olympique, perhaps Paris’s most famous orchestra, and was responsible for the commissioning of Franz Josef Haydn’s “Paris” Symphonies, Nos. 82-87. During the French Revolution, Saint-Georges served as a colonel of the first all-black regiment in Europe, and later took part in the Haitian slave rebellion and independence movement. He composed eight operas, two symphonies, and around ten violin concertos and many string quartets, songs, and other works. U.S. President John Adams called him “the most accomplished man in Europe in riding, shooting, fencing, dancing, music.”
Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5/2
Duration: 25 minutes
Instrumentation: strings, solo violin
Although the evidence is uncertain, Saint-Georges may have studied with one of the great violinists of his day, Jean-Marie Leclair. In 1769, Saint-Georges became the concertmaster of the Concert des Amateurs orchestra, which was led by another of his teachers, Françoise Joseph Gossec. When Gossec moved on to direct the Concert Spirituel in 1773, Saint-Georges went with him to serve again as concertmaster. Over the years, Saint-Georges also became increasingly known as a solo performer. Along with his own ten concertos, composers like Gossec and Karl Stamitz wrote works for him.
Saint-Georges’s abilities as a virtuoso are evident in all his concertos, including the Concerto in A major. Its longest movement is the first, in something like sonata allegro form with ideas that are developed and then repeated in their original form. The movement opens with a graceful tune. Lively and more introspective passages alternate in quick measure, as Saint-Georges shows off his facility with melodic writing. When the solo violin enters with its frequently decorative melodic line, ideas pass freely back and forth between the soloist and orchestra, as each of them also develops its own material. A few passages move into a more urgent minor key.
Beginning with a stately, melancholic tread, the slow movement, while still in a major key, plumbs some emotional depths. When the string orchestra completes its unfurling of the opening, the violin enters with a gesture repeated from the first movement, holding a lengthy single note that eventually extends in a lyrical outpouring. The texture is light throughout, and at several points, Saint-Georges restricts the accompaniment to just a small group of violins, making the return of the lower strings that much more dramatic. Opportunities for virtuoso display, plentiful throughout the first two movements, become even more pronounced in the Finale, a rondo, with wonderfully varied textures, based on a playful recurring opening theme.