Renaud
Capucon is a French violinist born (in Chambery) on January 27, 1976. He was discovered by conductor Claudio Abbado,
who was instrumental in encouraging his career, just as Arturo Toscanini
discovered Vasa Prihoda, Thomas Beecham discovered Albert Sammons, and Edouard
Colonne discovered Jacques Thibaud.
Capucon began studying the violin at age 4 at the music conservatory in
Chambery. He studied, between ages 12
and 19, with American violinist Veda Reynolds (in Europe.) At 14, he entered the National Conservatory
of Music and Dance in Paris from which he graduated at age 17. His main teacher there was Gerard Poulet. One of his other teachers was Thomas Brandis
(in Berlin.) Capucon briefly played in
the European Union Youth Orchestra and then was invited by Claudio Abbado to
serve as concertmaster (1998-2000) of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (which
Abbado founded and conducted regularly.)
Capucon simultaneously began playing as a soloist and chamber musician and
quickly rose to stardom. He first soloed
with the Berlin Philharmonic on November 15, 2002, playing the Korngold
Concerto. He was 26 years old. His career has taken him around the world and
he has already performed with all of the major orchestras and played as soloist
or in recital in the best-known concert halls.
The only exception is the New York Philharmonic, with which I could not find
any record of an appearance. I cannot
guess as to the reason, but it does happen now and then – an instance of a
major artist who has never appeared with one or another of the major orchestras
or this or that major conductor. Although
he has over 20 CDs in his discography, his most important recording – as far as
I am concerned - is probably his recording of the Schumann concerto, a gem
which was unknown and un-played for many decades thanks to Joseph Joachim’s
negative opinion of it. Here is a
YouTube video of his performance of this concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of
Europe. As do most of today’s
violinists, Capucon plays lots of chamber music in recital and at quite a few
music festivals far and wide, including the Verbier, Lucerne, San Sebastian, Edinburgh,
and Tanglewood. Capucon has recorded for
the DG, Decca, EMI, TDK, and Virgin Classics labels. On May 25, 2009, Capucon was filmed playing
in the midst of metro commuters in Paris (line 6 of the metro but I don’t know
which station), unrecognized and unacknowledged by the passing crowd. Joshua Bell did a similar thing on January
12, 2007 in Washington D.C. with similar results. This reminds me of the doctor’s mother (or
father) who used the van Gogh portrait of their son (Dr. Felix Rey) to plug a
hole in their chicken coup. They had no
clue the painting was (or would later be) valuable. After
the piece was sold and discovered (20 years later), it was eventually brought
to a museum where it was appraised at several millions. Location can, and frequently does, make all
the difference in the world. Among Capucon’s
violins have been a Vuillaume, a Guadagnini, and the 1737 Panette Guarnerius,
previously owned by Isaac Stern.
