“Stages
in the Life of a Musician and Teacher” was the title of a small CD
and book production, which we had been commissioned to compile by his widow,
Marianne Laurent, in 2002 as a limited edition for a circle of personal
friends and musicians. The first collection of 7 CDs and a comprehensive
booklet featuring biography, pictures, documents and press reviews was
followed by another three CD post productions.
The musical legacy of Jean Laurent’s interpretations of works by some baroque composers, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Schubert, Suk, as well as Debussy, Ravel, Höller, Genzmer, Jef Maes and Henk Badings consolidated on 10 CDs is now available on the Internet for free download. Live concert recordings and radio recordings dating back to 1953 through 1969 were used for the CDs. All tracks have been digitally remastered and restored by Andreas Fischer, chief sound engineer at Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio and Television).
These CDs provide an overview of the musical career of the violinist, who was born in Belgium, where he also studied his craft to later perfect his art as a violin virtuoso in London under Carl Flesch and in Paris under Firmin Touche.
Jean Laurent played with renowned chamber music partners such as Luciano Sgrizzi, Magda Rusy, Viktor Weywara as well as Wilfried Rehm, Eugène Traey, Hugo Steurer and Hellmut Hideghéti. As a soloist, he shared the stage with the Radio della Svizzera Italiana symphony orchestra in Lugano.
It is much harder to intimately portray “Jean Laurent – the pedagogue” in a documentation than it is to allow audiences to meet “Jean Laurent – the violinist”. We have therefore made every attempt to show this part of his artistic work by presenting ample image and press material.
