Research

Exploring Emile Sauret’s 24 Etudes Caprices, op.64
through the making of a first recording:
culminating in the release of a new edition,
published by Edition Peters (2022)

"... Sauret’s command of the violin is extraordinary ..."
--- G B Shaw

My doctoral research at the Royal Academy of Music revealed some of the artistic and critical discoveries and challenges encountered, tackled and documented during the preparation and delivery of a world premiere recording series of Émile Sauret’s 24 Études Caprices, op.64, issued by Naxos between 2017 and 2020. The first volume was featured on BBC Radio 3, and was also selected as a Critic’s Choice in American Record Guide. The remaining three volumes were recorded on the c. 1685 ‘Sauret’ Stradivari violin, kindly loaned by John Ludlow. In 2018, I was grateful and fortunate to have been awarded one of the most prestigious awards of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, The John Clementi Collard Fellowship, in support of my research project. I express my greatest thanks to my research adviser, Professor Neil Heyde, for his invaluable expertise throughout all stages of the research.

The supreme 19th century violin virtuoso, composer and pedagogue, Émile Sauret carved himself an enviable reputation during his lifetime and was acclaimed by the greatest musicians of the century, including Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Sarasate. Until recent times, Sauret has been predominantly remembered by violinists for the fiendishly difficult cadenza he composed to Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Composed during his professorial tenure at the Royal Academy of Music, the 24 Études Caprices are a testament to his technical finesse and are dedicated to his student, the great English virtuoso Marjorie Hayward.

It became clear early in the process that Sauret’s fame in his lifetime has not been accompanied by a posthumous understanding of his musical personality and that I needed to build a detailed picture of his musical life to have a sense of who he was and what he represented. For an artist of his stature, acclaimed by some of the greatest musicians of the era, the gaps and absence of knowledge in Sauret’s biographical, performance, pedagogical and compositional data in major dictionaries surprised me. When I introduced my project to the Royal Academy of Music in 2016, the connection of the Études Caprices, op. 64 with the institution seemed to have been entirely lost.

My doctoral project speaks directly to my own interests and experience as a performer, teacher and researcher and I feel privileged to have had the opportunity in these last few years, to explore the technical world of a violin phenomenon whose technique was deemed or still is ... ‘unsurpassed’. My journey of ‘living-through’ Sauret’s fingerings, bowing, dynamic and phrasing indications in these specific pieces radically developed and redefined my perception of virtuosity and views on getting around the fingerboard, adding an even greater richness of approaches in playing and teaching. Having the invaluable opportunity to work with Sauret’s c.1685 Stradivari violin from the second volume of the recording series onwards, enriched my tactile relationship with the music and my understanding of the instrumental dimensions of the Études Caprices. I hope that the ways in which I have offered to communicate and present some of these details may awake interest and lead to further research. My sense of the wider importance of the project can be gained from the articles published in The Strad magazine (https://www.thestrad.com/nazrin-rashidova/2753.tag) and reviews featured in the American Record Guide, Fanfare, The Strad and Neue Musikzeitung magazines.

In the process of collecting a plethora of information on Émile Sauret, the more I stumbled on websites of his contemporaries, the more I felt he needed an independent identity in the digital age.
Thus, www.emilesauret.co.uk is born, out of a labour of love and a sense of obligation to reanimate our relationship with Émile Sauret in the present day.

2022 marks the historic release of my new edition of Émile Sauret’s 24 Études Caprices, op.64, published by Edition Peters. The extensive Preface in this new edition provides a biographical portrait of Émile Sauret, revealing the reception history of the 24 Études Caprices, op.64 and a performance approach to them in the present day. See the latest interview, introducing the new edition HERE.

NEW EDITION

RECORDINGS

A supreme virtuoso, the French violinist, composer and teacher Émile Sauret was acclaimed by the greatest musicians of the century, including Sarasate and Liszt. He wrote a series of charming genre pieces (available on Naxos 8.572366) but also a sequence of 24 Études-Caprices which marry virtuosity with every expressive opportunity available to the instrument. The result is one of the unsung but major cycles for solo violin spanning all twenty-four keys.
© Naxos
Released in 2017

This recording features the violin after G. B. Guadagnini Milan 1753, 'Nazrin', by David Rattray

For more information
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573704
Reviews
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.573704&languageid=EN
Article
https://www.thestrad.com/variations-on-fast-forward-the-extraordinary-density-of-emile-saurets-24-etudes-caprices/7130.article

Earning the admiration of the most eminent composers of his time, from Brahms and Tchaikovsky to Liszt and Sarasate, Émile Sauret occupies a significant place in the history of the violin. His lively genre pieces (available on 8.572366) were augmented by an extensive cycle of Études-Caprices (Volume 1 is on 8.573704) that remain a testament to his finesse and command. Written to span all twenty-four keys, they encompass subtle expressive qualities as well as drama and technical virtuosity. © Naxos
Released in 2018

This recording features the c.1685 'Sauret' Stradivari violin

For more information
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573843
Reviews
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.573843&languageid=EN
Article
https://www.thestrad.com/artists/nazrin-rashidova-plays-emile-saurets-etudes-caprices-on-the-sauret-stradivari/7612.article

With a portfolio of over 250 works, including major concertos and technical studies, Emile Sauret- hugely admired by Brahms, Liszt and Tchaikovsky- was one of the most distinguished figures of his time, a violinist with a stupendous technique and a profoundly analytical mind. With its spellbinding effects and exceptional variation of form and dynamics, Volume 3 of his Etudes-Caprices, Op. 64 continues the exploration of this monumental work’s fusion of virtuosity and expression. Nazrin Rashidova plays on Sauret’s own 1685 Stradivari violin. © Naxos
Released in 2019

This recording features the c.1685 'Sauret' Stradivari violin

For more information
https://naxosdirect.com/items/sauret-24-etudes-caprices-vol.-3-499978
Reviews
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573975
Article
https://www.thestrad.com/playing/emile-sauret-moderation-and-the-saccade-bow-stroke/9214.article

The final volume of the 24 Études-Caprices by the internationally renowned virtuoso Émile Sauret, crowns one of the most impressive but seldom performed bodies of solo violin writing in the entire canon. In the last five Études, once again played by Nazrin Rashidova on Sauret's own Stradivarius violin, the full range of his art can be heard, from double-and triple-stopping, to registrar leaps, chordal and staccato techniques and exercises for absolute control of the bow. Of Volume 3 (8.573975) The Strad wrote: 'Rashidova plays superbly'. © Naxos
Released in 2020

This recording features the c.1685 'Sauret' Stradivari violin

For more information
https://www.naxos.com/feature/Rashidova-Sauret.asp
Reviews
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.574159&languageid=EN
Article
https://www.thestrad.com/playing-and-teaching/nazrin-rashidova-on-emile-sauret-the-teacher/10671.article

COMMISSION
In September 2022, in the Bicentenary year of the Royal Academy of Music (2022), we celebrated the 170th anniversary of the birth of the violin phenomenon Émile Sauret, and marked the launch of the new edition of his 24 Études Caprices, op.64 published by Edition Peters. To mark this occasion, I commissioned the artist, Misha Sofil to paint this beautiful portrait of Émile Sauret from an original photograph (featured on top of this page) which dates back to around 1905.