Catherine Sarasin
pianist
news
CD Trouvez les femmes! Vol.2
Works for flute and piano by Amy Beach and Amanda Maier-Röntgen
Trailer Trouvez les femmes! Vol.2
CD Trouvez les femmes! Vol.1
Works for flute and piano by Emilie Mayer and Laura Netzel
Concerti.de 28.05.2022
Trailer Trouvez les femmes! Vol.1
MEDIA
Amy Beach Sonata a minor Finale
Miriam Terragni/Catherine Sarasin
Joachim Raff
from Paraphrases de Salon d’après Verdi op. 70
Il Trovatore
Premiere Recording – Catherine Sarasin
Victor Alphonse Duvernoy
Deux Morceaux op. 41,2 Intermezzo
Miriam Terragni, flute
Catherine Sarasin, piano
DISKOGRAPHY
CD TROUVEZ LES FEMMES! VOL.1
CD Fantasie | Sonate
CD Paraphrases brillantes
In 2010 the first CD of the duo Miriam Terragni and Catherine Sarasin will be released. It contains unknown operatic paraphrases of well-known operas, six of which are world premiere recordings. Four of the works recorded on the CD were published by the interpreters themselves in the Koru publishing house. A chamber music excursion into the opera world – highly virtuoso, dramatic and entertaining at the same time.
VITA
Catherine Sarasin
Curriculum vitae
The Swiss pianist Catherine Sarasin was educated at the Musikhochschulen Basel and Lucerne, where she was influenced the most by the English pianist Hubert Harry. Her interest in lied accompaniment allowed her to continue her studies in the master class for lieder interpretation with Irwin Gage at the Musikhochschule Zürich. Further impulses followed, inter alia. by Arie Vardi, Jürgen Uhde, Peter Feuchtwanger and Wolfgang Rihm. She dealt intensively with the historically informed performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Andreas Kröper (Masaryk University / Brno). As a soloist and chamber music partner, she gives guest performances all over Europe. So she played u.a. as a soloist at the Mozart-Salieri Festival in the Rudolfinum in Prague Piano Concertos by Mozart and Salieri. Various radio and TV productions as well as CDs document her work.
Classes
Since the age of 20, she gives piano lessons to children, adolescents and adults and gives chamber music courses. Again and again, their students take part in competitions with great success. She teaches at the music school Reinach / BL.
F.M. Alexander technique
After many years teaching in F.M. Alexander Technique at Yezekiel Ein-Shay completed her three-year apprenticeship with a diploma at the Basel School for Alexander Technique from Yehudi Kuperman. She then completed her training with Don Weed in Zurich, Freiburg i.Br. and in Bristol / GB to deepen their knowledge. Many trips to Israel in the schools of Shmuel Nelken, Dan Armon and Shake Hermelin gave further impulses. In her practice, she has specialized in working with musicians to improve their coordination of movement, the prerequisite for free play.
Downloads
Press Kit: You can download pictures and biography as PDF directly here:
▼ Biography PDF
▼ Portraits / pictures
Reviews
Ines Zimmermann
Den geneigten Hörer erwarten 65 Minuten sprudelndes Virtuosentum des Flöten-Repertoires aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Zu hören sind Paraphrasen von Opernarien aus Giuseppe Verdis Rigoletto und La Traviata, Charles Gounots Faust, Gioachino Rossfinis La Cenerentola und Georges Bizets Carmen. Die Arrangeure dieser Opernhits waren seinerzeit bekannte Flötisten wie z.B. Wilhelm Popp, Emanuele Krakamp oder François Borne, die sich ihr eigenes Repertoire schrieben und dabei alles einbauten, was gut und schwer war, um ihre eigene Virtuosität unter Beweis zu stellen und das zahlende Publikum vom eigenen künstlerischen Rang zu überzeugen.
Die Flötistin Miriam Terragni und die Pianistin Catherine Sarasin haben beide eine sehr natürliche sympathische Ausstrahlung und agieren in selbstverständlicher Eintracht miteinander. Ohne Energieverlust übertragen sie die hohe Kunst des Belcanto auf ihre Instrumente. Wunderschönes Legato und Messa di voce, elegante Portamenti und Vibrati, spritzige Läufe und spannende Dynamik lassen die technischen Anforderungen zugunsten der dramatischen Musik in den Hintergrund treten. Scheinbar mühelos fliegt die Musik am Fenster des Betrachters vorbei und erfreut das Ohr, ohne dabei zu überanstrengen. Eine Tatsache, zu der die moderaten Tempi beitragen.
In der Ersteinspielung von Joseph Joachim Raffs Deux Paraphrases de Salon d’apres Verdi, op. 70 zeigt sich Catherine Sarasin als vorzügliche Solistin. Der Schweizer Komponist und Pianist Raff (1822-1882) war ein glühender Verehrer Franz Liszts, der sich in dieser Komposition der Popularität der beiden Melodien aus Il Trovatore und La Traviata bediente, um sie in sein eigenes Werk einzubauen.
Nie wirken die bekannten Motive platt oder billig, ganz egal wie oft man sie auf Reisen als Klingelton gehört hat. Diese Aufnahme stellt die Unschuld und unpathetische Schönheit in aller Jungfräulichkeit wieder her, und man möchte gerne mehr von diesem Duo hören.
Niklaus Rüegg
Bei Coviello Classics ist am 1. Dezember 2017 unter dem Titel «Fantasie | Sonate» ein hörenswertes Album für Flöte und Klavier erschienen.
Für die Querflöte gibt es sehr wenig Literatur aus der Romantik, darum ist es äusserst verdienstvoll, dass sich die Soloflötistin des Aargauer Symphonie Orchesters «argovia philharmonic» Miriam Terragni zusammen mit ihrer Duopartnerin, der Pianistin Catherine Sarasin auf Entdeckungstour durch die Basler und Pariser Antiquariate gemacht hat. Die Ausbeute war sehr erfreulich: Allein sechs Stücke erleben auf dieser CD ihre weltweit erste Wiedergabe auf Tonträger – und es handelt sich dabei um echte Trouvaillen aus der deutschen (Spät-)Romantik und dem französischen Fin de Siècle.
Den Anfang macht die Fantasie-Sonate in A-Dur op. 17 des Liszt-Schülers Max Meyer-Olbersleben (1850–1927). Obwohl schon mehrfach im Druck erschienen, ist diese grosse dreisätzige Sonate heute so gut wie vergessen. Eine echte Referenzaufnahme fehlte bisher. Diese Lücke darf jetzt als geschlossen gelten. Die beiden Solistinnen ziehen gleich zu Beginn alle Register und lassen ein subtiles, ausgewogenes Zusammenspiel hören. In der anspruchsvollen Ballade in gis-Moll op. 9 für Klavier desselben Komponisten vermag sich Catherine Sarasin als kompetente Solistin zu profilieren. Dem Violinvirtuosen und Konzertmeister von Wagners Gnaden am Bayreuther Festspielhaus August Wilhelmj verdanken wir die Violinstimme zu Richard Wagners kurzer Klavierromanze WWV 94, welche von Miriam Terragni wiederum auf die Flöte übertragen wurde. Von Wilhelmj selbst stammt die Ballade: Sie verbindet Anklänge an eine wagnerische Chromatik mit einer ausladenden spätromantischen Harmonik. Lili Boulangers Pièce erlebt eine träumerische Premiere, gefolgt von der besser bekannten, zart musizierten Nocturne. In Dans la forêt enchantée des Franzosen Léon Moreau (1870–1946) wird die Ruhe des Waldes und das Vorbeischwirren flirrender Sylphen (Luftgeister) plastisch dargestellt. In der Valse Lente variiert Louis Masson die gemächliche Melodie allmählich ganz filigran – mit Ohrwurmpotenzial. Deux Morceaux op. 41 von Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (1842–1907), aufgestöbert in der berühmten Pariser Rue de Rome, sind bei keinem Verlag mehr gelistet. Das Intermezzo, das dem bedeutungsschweren Lamento folgt, setzt mit seinem bezaubernd leichten Rhythmus den Schlusspunkt dieser rundum geglückten Aufnahme.
John Sheppard MusicWeb International
Nowadays if you miss live performances of a new opera from an established composer there is a good chance that it will be available as a recording, possibly even as a DVD. In the nineteenth century if you missed one or wanted to repeat the experience the alternative was through transcriptions. These could range from a straightforward vocal score – Bernard Shaw was said to have spent many hours playing and singing in this way – by way of a variety of selections and dance arrangements for piano or various instrumental groups, to concert works intended for the professional or gifted amateur performer. This disc consists of nine of the latter, mainly for flute and piano but relieved by two short piano solos by Raff.
Apart from Raff, the names of the composers here are unlikely to be known other than to flautists. Most were indeed not only flautists themselves but wrote large quantities of studies and concert works for the instrument. Popp for instance wrote over six hundred works and Krakamp nearly three hundred, and studies of varying degrees of difficulty by Gariboldi, Popp and Demersseman are familiar to every flautist. They are however less likely to be as familiar with the works on this disc. Certainly like the studies they display all the characteristics of the instrument and test the player’s technique, but what may be less expected is that they are also very imaginative and entertaining as music. This may not be music of great depth or range – mention of the achievements of Liszt is out of place in this context, but it is extremely effective. It is not hard to imagine how well it would be received in a salon or in a small concert hall at the time that it was written.
Fortunately the two players on this disc understand both its qualities and its limitations very well. Both are Swiss, and they have been playing together since 2001. They play with complete rapport, considerable virtuosity where required, and are well balanced, so that the flute does not unrealistically overwhelm the piano. Miriam Terragni has a very beautiful tone, avoiding the excessive vibrato that some better known flautists employ, but with a surprisingly large range of dynamics and articulation. All in all both players do full justice the music and present it to its best advantage.
A quick glance at the titles of the items may suggest an excess of Verdi, and in particular of music based on “La Traviata”. However although both Krakamp and Remusat end their works with “Sempre libera”, their choice of items from the opera is otherwise quite different, whilst Raff’s piano solo is based entirely on a single section of the opera – the ensemble that ends Act 2. The otherwise helpful and full notes by Robert Matthew-Walker do not identify on which sections of each opera the various works are based but this is of minor importance. As a whole, this is an extremely entertaining disc likely to have appeal for many more than merely flautists and opera lovers.
John Sheppard
Mark Thomas: Two Salon Paraphrases after Verdi
This CD is something of a first: Raff shares billing with seven other composers and his name is by far the best known amongst them! It is also unusual because the two Raff pieces in his op.70 set are the only ones on the disc purely for piano, all the rest are for flute and piano.
The Two Salon Paraphrases after Verdi date from 1857, a time when Raff’s star was at last on the rise, albeit slowly. He had just emerged from the shadow of his mentor Liszt, had established himself in Wiesbaden and was starting to gain a name for himself as a serious composer of large scale works; in the same year he completed his Second String Quartet and La fée d’amour, a substantial piece for piano and orchestra.
The CD’s programme has been carefully planned, with these piano-only pieces coming in the middle of it, preceded by four Italian opera paraphrases and followed by three on French operas. The Raff pair have rather darker timbres than the flute and piano works which surround them. Catherine Sarasin begins Trovatore with an appropriately doom laden, dramatic opening, followed by a hesitant, teasing introduction of Raff’s take on Verdi’s familiar tunes. She brushes off the difficulty of Raff’s never-easy writing with aplomb, pacing the short piece well to subtly build up the tempo and the tension. Although only lasting a little under five minutes, the work is a satisfying artistic whole, no mere potpourri of stitched together tunes, and Sarasin’s performance helps give it that cohesion.
Traviata follows a similar arc. Gloomily foreboding at the beginning, it stutteringly launches into the main material which Raff decorates more than in its companion piece. Verdi’s yearning phrases are well articulated by Sarasin who clearly understands that this is a tragedy after all. She brings to the second half of the work a lilting delicacy which nonetheless has an entirely appropriate tinge of sadness, an effect rather spoilt (by Raff, not Sarasin) at the end with a emphatic chordal finish. As with its companion, Traviata’s five minutes are a very satisfying listen under Sarasin’s fingers.
The rest of the CD is equally delightful. The paraphrases on Rigoletto, Traviata, Cenerentola, Faust, La Juive and Carmen are by the, to me at least, completely unknown Popp, Krakamp, Remusat, Leduc, Gariboldi, Demersseman and Borne, all of whom were apparently well known composer-virtuosi in their day. Miriam Terragni is clearly a virtuoso of the first class. There is a delightful lightness to much of her playing and her technique is staggering, witness the apparent effortlessness with which she treats some of the (literally) breathtakingly long phrases in these pieces. Sarasin is a very sensitive accompanist, taking a supporting role for the most part in this music written by flautists to display their own virtuosity, but shining when she is given a few bars to showcase her own considerable talents. Of the music itself, the most effective pieces are the two that bookend the programme: Wilhem Popp’s Rigoletto Fantasie (his op.335!) and François Borne’s Fantaisie brillante sur Carmen. The former for its shameless hijacking of Verdi to create a vehicle demonstrating Popp’s own astounding virtuosity and Borne’s because it remains truer to the spirit of Bizet’s masterpiece than the other works here. That said, Raff’s 10 minutes show him to be a composer on an altogether higher plane than any of them.
The sound is immediate and warm and Robert Matthew-Walker’s insert notes are properly informative, even if he is faintly sniffy about Raff. In sum, a delightful CD and thoroughly recommendable.
from the press
reviews
Ines Zimmermann
Den geneigten Hörer erwarten 65 Minuten sprudelndes Virtuosentum des Flöten-Repertoires aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Zu hören sind Paraphrasen von Opernarien aus Giuseppe Verdis Rigoletto und La Traviata, Charles Gounots Faust, Gioachino Rossfinis La Cenerentola und Georges Bizets Carmen. Die Arrangeure dieser Opernhits waren seinerzeit bekannte Flötisten wie z.B. Wilhelm Popp, Emanuele Krakamp oder François Borne, die sich ihr eigenes Repertoire schrieben und dabei alles einbauten, was gut und schwer war, um ihre eigene Virtuosität unter Beweis zu stellen und das zahlende Publikum vom eigenen künstlerischen Rang zu überzeugen.
Die Flötistin Miriam Terragni und die Pianistin Catherine Sarasin haben beide eine sehr natürliche sympathische Ausstrahlung und agieren in selbstverständlicher Eintracht miteinander. Ohne Energieverlust übertragen sie die hohe Kunst des Belcanto auf ihre Instrumente. Wunderschönes Legato und Messa di voce, elegante Portamenti und Vibrati, spritzige Läufe und spannende Dynamik lassen die technischen Anforderungen zugunsten der dramatischen Musik in den Hintergrund treten. Scheinbar mühelos fliegt die Musik am Fenster des Betrachters vorbei und erfreut das Ohr, ohne dabei zu überanstrengen. Eine Tatsache, zu der die moderaten Tempi beitragen.
In der Ersteinspielung von Joseph Joachim Raffs Deux Paraphrases de Salon d’apres Verdi, op. 70 zeigt sich Catherine Sarasin als vorzügliche Solistin. Der Schweizer Komponist und Pianist Raff (1822-1882) war ein glühender Verehrer Franz Liszts, der sich in dieser Komposition der Popularität der beiden Melodien aus Il Trovatore und La Traviata bediente, um sie in sein eigenes Werk einzubauen.
Nie wirken die bekannten Motive platt oder billig, ganz egal wie oft man sie auf Reisen als Klingelton gehört hat. Diese Aufnahme stellt die Unschuld und unpathetische Schönheit in aller Jungfräulichkeit wieder her, und man möchte gerne mehr von diesem Duo hören.
Niklaus Rüegg
Bei Coviello Classics ist am 1. Dezember 2017 unter dem Titel «Fantasie | Sonate» ein hörenswertes Album für Flöte und Klavier erschienen.
Für die Querflöte gibt es sehr wenig Literatur aus der Romantik, darum ist es äusserst verdienstvoll, dass sich die Soloflötistin des Aargauer Symphonie Orchesters «argovia philharmonic» Miriam Terragni zusammen mit ihrer Duopartnerin, der Pianistin Catherine Sarasin auf Entdeckungstour durch die Basler und Pariser Antiquariate gemacht hat. Die Ausbeute war sehr erfreulich: Allein sechs Stücke erleben auf dieser CD ihre weltweit erste Wiedergabe auf Tonträger – und es handelt sich dabei um echte Trouvaillen aus der deutschen (Spät-)Romantik und dem französischen Fin de Siècle.
Den Anfang macht die Fantasie-Sonate in A-Dur op. 17 des Liszt-Schülers Max Meyer-Olbersleben (1850–1927). Obwohl schon mehrfach im Druck erschienen, ist diese grosse dreisätzige Sonate heute so gut wie vergessen. Eine echte Referenzaufnahme fehlte bisher. Diese Lücke darf jetzt als geschlossen gelten. Die beiden Solistinnen ziehen gleich zu Beginn alle Register und lassen ein subtiles, ausgewogenes Zusammenspiel hören. In der anspruchsvollen Ballade in gis-Moll op. 9 für Klavier desselben Komponisten vermag sich Catherine Sarasin als kompetente Solistin zu profilieren. Dem Violinvirtuosen und Konzertmeister von Wagners Gnaden am Bayreuther Festspielhaus August Wilhelmj verdanken wir die Violinstimme zu Richard Wagners kurzer Klavierromanze WWV 94, welche von Miriam Terragni wiederum auf die Flöte übertragen wurde. Von Wilhelmj selbst stammt die Ballade: Sie verbindet Anklänge an eine wagnerische Chromatik mit einer ausladenden spätromantischen Harmonik. Lili Boulangers Pièce erlebt eine träumerische Premiere, gefolgt von der besser bekannten, zart musizierten Nocturne. In Dans la forêt enchantée des Franzosen Léon Moreau (1870–1946) wird die Ruhe des Waldes und das Vorbeischwirren flirrender Sylphen (Luftgeister) plastisch dargestellt. In der Valse Lente variiert Louis Masson die gemächliche Melodie allmählich ganz filigran – mit Ohrwurmpotenzial. Deux Morceaux op. 41 von Victor Alphonse Duvernoy (1842–1907), aufgestöbert in der berühmten Pariser Rue de Rome, sind bei keinem Verlag mehr gelistet. Das Intermezzo, das dem bedeutungsschweren Lamento folgt, setzt mit seinem bezaubernd leichten Rhythmus den Schlusspunkt dieser rundum geglückten Aufnahme.
John Sheppard MusicWeb International
Nowadays if you miss live performances of a new opera from an established composer there is a good chance that it will be available as a recording, possibly even as a DVD. In the nineteenth century if you missed one or wanted to repeat the experience the alternative was through transcriptions. These could range from a straightforward vocal score – Bernard Shaw was said to have spent many hours playing and singing in this way – by way of a variety of selections and dance arrangements for piano or various instrumental groups, to concert works intended for the professional or gifted amateur performer. This disc consists of nine of the latter, mainly for flute and piano but relieved by two short piano solos by Raff.
Apart from Raff, the names of the composers here are unlikely to be known other than to flautists. Most were indeed not only flautists themselves but wrote large quantities of studies and concert works for the instrument. Popp for instance wrote over six hundred works and Krakamp nearly three hundred, and studies of varying degrees of difficulty by Gariboldi, Popp and Demersseman are familiar to every flautist. They are however less likely to be as familiar with the works on this disc. Certainly like the studies they display all the characteristics of the instrument and test the player’s technique, but what may be less expected is that they are also very imaginative and entertaining as music. This may not be music of great depth or range – mention of the achievements of Liszt is out of place in this context, but it is extremely effective. It is not hard to imagine how well it would be received in a salon or in a small concert hall at the time that it was written.
Fortunately the two players on this disc understand both its qualities and its limitations very well. Both are Swiss, and they have been playing together since 2001. They play with complete rapport, considerable virtuosity where required, and are well balanced, so that the flute does not unrealistically overwhelm the piano. Miriam Terragni has a very beautiful tone, avoiding the excessive vibrato that some better known flautists employ, but with a surprisingly large range of dynamics and articulation. All in all both players do full justice the music and present it to its best advantage.
A quick glance at the titles of the items may suggest an excess of Verdi, and in particular of music based on “La Traviata”. However although both Krakamp and Remusat end their works with “Sempre libera”, their choice of items from the opera is otherwise quite different, whilst Raff’s piano solo is based entirely on a single section of the opera – the ensemble that ends Act 2. The otherwise helpful and full notes by Robert Matthew-Walker do not identify on which sections of each opera the various works are based but this is of minor importance. As a whole, this is an extremely entertaining disc likely to have appeal for many more than merely flautists and opera lovers.
John Sheppard
Mark Thomas: Two Salon Paraphrases after Verdi
This CD is something of a first: Raff shares billing with seven other composers and his name is by far the best known amongst them! It is also unusual because the two Raff pieces in his op.70 set are the only ones on the disc purely for piano, all the rest are for flute and piano.
The Two Salon Paraphrases after Verdi date from 1857, a time when Raff’s star was at last on the rise, albeit slowly. He had just emerged from the shadow of his mentor Liszt, had established himself in Wiesbaden and was starting to gain a name for himself as a serious composer of large scale works; in the same year he completed his Second String Quartet and La fée d’amour, a substantial piece for piano and orchestra.
The CD’s programme has been carefully planned, with these piano-only pieces coming in the middle of it, preceded by four Italian opera paraphrases and followed by three on French operas. The Raff pair have rather darker timbres than the flute and piano works which surround them. Catherine Sarasin begins Trovatore with an appropriately doom laden, dramatic opening, followed by a hesitant, teasing introduction of Raff’s take on Verdi’s familiar tunes. She brushes off the difficulty of Raff’s never-easy writing with aplomb, pacing the short piece well to subtly build up the tempo and the tension. Although only lasting a little under five minutes, the work is a satisfying artistic whole, no mere potpourri of stitched together tunes, and Sarasin’s performance helps give it that cohesion.
Traviata follows a similar arc. Gloomily foreboding at the beginning, it stutteringly launches into the main material which Raff decorates more than in its companion piece. Verdi’s yearning phrases are well articulated by Sarasin who clearly understands that this is a tragedy after all. She brings to the second half of the work a lilting delicacy which nonetheless has an entirely appropriate tinge of sadness, an effect rather spoilt (by Raff, not Sarasin) at the end with a emphatic chordal finish. As with its companion, Traviata’s five minutes are a very satisfying listen under Sarasin’s fingers.
The rest of the CD is equally delightful. The paraphrases on Rigoletto, Traviata, Cenerentola, Faust, La Juive and Carmen are by the, to me at least, completely unknown Popp, Krakamp, Remusat, Leduc, Gariboldi, Demersseman and Borne, all of whom were apparently well known composer-virtuosi in their day. Miriam Terragni is clearly a virtuoso of the first class. There is a delightful lightness to much of her playing and her technique is staggering, witness the apparent effortlessness with which she treats some of the (literally) breathtakingly long phrases in these pieces. Sarasin is a very sensitive accompanist, taking a supporting role for the most part in this music written by flautists to display their own virtuosity, but shining when she is given a few bars to showcase her own considerable talents. Of the music itself, the most effective pieces are the two that bookend the programme: Wilhem Popp’s Rigoletto Fantasie (his op.335!) and François Borne’s Fantaisie brillante sur Carmen. The former for its shameless hijacking of Verdi to create a vehicle demonstrating Popp’s own astounding virtuosity and Borne’s because it remains truer to the spirit of Bizet’s masterpiece than the other works here. That said, Raff’s 10 minutes show him to be a composer on an altogether higher plane than any of them.
The sound is immediate and warm and Robert Matthew-Walker’s insert notes are properly informative, even if he is faintly sniffy about Raff. In sum, a delightful CD and thoroughly recommendable.
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Catherine Sarasin - Impressum - AGB - Images: Werner Aufrichtig and Conny Ehm - Webdesign: Christian Dietlin