Gabriel son violon et son héros !
C’est notre ami Bill ZICK qui nous signale opportunément la publication dans le New York times d’un bel article sur le Biographe du Chevalier en la Personne de Monsieur Gabriel BANAT.
Les Guadeloupéens savent-ils ce qu’ils doivent à Gabriel BANAT ? Sans doute non ! car jamais aucun officiel n’a adressé à notre grand ami Gabriel le moindre mot de remerciement ! Jamais la moindre invitation de revenir au Pays de Saint-Georges !
Seuls quelques amis de Saint-Georges apprécient l’énorme travail de ce Grand musicien ancien premier violon de l’Orchestre de philharmonique New-York. Les Musiciens de l’Ensemble Instrumental Chevalier de Saint-Georges savent de quoi je parle ici… car un jour Gabriel est venu les voir… a joué avec eux de la musique de Saint-Georges bien sure…
Savourons l’article de Roberta Hershenson en envoyant un salut à Bill pour sa vigilance sans faille. Vendredi soir au Baillif j’ai dit au public venu écouter de la musique de Saint-Georges tout le bien que je pense de nos amis Américains.
Jean-Claude HALLEY
A Swashbuckling Violinist, Fresh From the 1700s
By Roberta Hershenson
Published January 6, 2008
Dobbs Ferry
ONE of the most fascinating figures of the 18th century was the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a composer, violinist, fencing champion and military hero whose fame spanned continents. That he was black, born in 1745 to a white planter and his slave mistress in Guadeloupe, not only shaped his life in France but has fed a growing interest in him today.
Though Saint-Georges’s life reads like a Hollywood screenplay, it was his musical talent that most interested Gabriel Banat, a concert violinist and musicologist whose biography, “The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow,” was published by Pendragon Press in 2006.
“He’s not a Mozart, but his innovative violin technique makes him a bridge between Italian virtuosos like Vivaldi and Locatelli and Beethoven in his violin writing,” Mr. Banat said in an interview in his home here. “He did a lot for the violin in bringing Italian virtuoso technique to the great masters.”
Lire l’article complet à cette adresse :
Et le merveilleux site de Bill !
http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-york-times-on-gabriel-banat.html
Guadeloupe Attitude 