Chrisitan Ferras - violinist

[Fiddle Faddle]

As a violin student when the LP era was still steaming along full swing, my teacher would often play recordings during lessons and lend them to me. It was usually the well-known greatest of the greats - Menuhin, Grumiaux, Heifetz, Ricci, Oistrakh and a young Perlman. Fair enough - you are going to learn a heck of a lot from these players.

In 1981 I bought my first portable cassette Walkman and started buying commercial cassettes of whatever violinist I could find. Being on a student budget, the reissues usually took my fancy, though I managed to stretch to a few contemporary DG cassettes from the young upstarts such as Anne-Sophie Mutter and Shlomo Mintz.

One Saturday, I saw a "budget" DG cassette reissue. Some dude I'd never heard of: Christian Ferras playing Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Karajan and the Berlin Phil.

I thought the reading of it was very heartfelt though possibly the technique was not quite as fluent and polished as a Grumiaux or Oistrakh. I distinctly remember the cover photo showing what appeared to be an uncomfortably high right arm. But somehow this apparently awkward technique did not stop him from producing wonderful music.

Sadly he did not make it to his 50th birthday. All the more sad if you consider the circumstances and his supreme musicianship.

Here are two short YouTube clips to enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBpHdzZyQAc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqBo5FwAugc

 

[Andrew Stenhouse]

Thank you for posting this - I wasn't aware of him before now

 

[Fiddle Faddle]

You are welcome Andrew. BTW, since seeing your avatar last week I've been reading up about Johannes Vermeer. We have both learned something!

 

[astrotoy]

I checked my collection and I have five of the six albums that Ferras did for British EMI from about 1959 to 1964, when he was in his late 20's to early 30's. Here are the albums
EMI ASD278 Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerti (have original and Testament reissue)
EMI ASD314 Bruch VC and Lalo Symphonie Espagnole (have EMI CfP reissue)
EMI ASD427 Mozart Violin Concerti 4 and 5 (have the EMI Regal issue)
EMI ASD531 Enescu Violin Sonata (don't have that one)
EMI ASD572 Berg Violin Concerto (have original)

EMI ASD346 Bach Double Concerto, with Ferras playing second violin to Menuhin (have original)

He also has some chamber music issued by French EMI which I do not have.

In the original vinyl releases they are all quite rare and pretty pricey.

The Testament reissue of ASD278 is excellent and reasonable in cost ($30 or 35).

I don't know whether any of these were ever reissued on CD.

We got to see Ferras in the late Spring or early Summer of 1978 in a solo recital in Hong Kong. It was a sad experience. I was working as a consultant for the Hong Kong government at the time and the main concert hall was in City Hall above my office. Ferras' accompanist for the concert was a fine local Hong Kong pianist who we had gotten to know and we were sitting next to her husband, the principal clarinetist of the Hong Kong Symphony, who had been a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra before moving to Hong Kong. Almost immediately, as Ferras started playing, we heard some out of tune notes from his violin. I turned to my wife and then to my neighbor and they both had quizzical faces, what was going on? This continued for several minutes - a very long time to the listeners. Finally, Ferras stopped and said that he could not continue. He said he was ill and not able to play. We were afraid he was drunk, since he also seemed unstable. However, many years later, after learning of his suicide in 1982 (at the age of 49) and lifelong depression, it might have been medications that he was taking. In any case, it was one of the saddest and strangest concerts that I have ever attended.

Larry

 

[Fiddle Faddle]

Larry,

Thanks so much for all this info. Thanks especially for the anecdote (as painful as it was to read). He would only have been a mere 45 at that recital. Normally at the pinnacle of his powers. Thankfully I can't ever recall being in an audience when these types of disasters (for whatever reason) occur. The decline in one's performing powers is always difficult to face. When a performer gets into their late 50s and 60s, it is par for the course and reasonably expected (though usually the decline is gradual and sometimes if subtle enough only noticed by fellow performers). For example, I am a huge Shlmo Mintz fan and he has always been one of the most precise and tecnical players out there. But I can now hear the decline in his playing (lucky not dramatic and more on par with his age). Then again, he is 59 this year. But for it to happen in the way it did for Ferras - and well before 1978 from other accounts and to such an obviously dramatic extent - is extremely saddening.

I've been tossing up getting a Testament reissue and thanks to your post I now have it on my wishlist (the Bruch and Lalo). Thanks for that. I only just got the new Analogue Productions reissue of the Szeryng Lalo (Living Stereo) last week, but the more the merrier!! I can never get enough of the great violinists!

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/9...alo_Symphonie_Espagnole-180_Gram_Vinyl_Record

 

[audioguy1958]

I have the 1979 rerelease Ferras/BPO/Brahms Violin Concerto LP and it's one of my favorites. I love the recording. Too bad for Ferras.