Renaud Capuçon is among France's top violinists, with a repertory that includes contemporary music as well as French and German standards. He is a major star of the Erato label's roster.
Capuçon was born in Chambéry in the French Alps on January 27, 1976. He began studies at the local conservatory at age four. His brother is cellist
Gautier Capuçon, and the two have performed and recorded together, notably in the
Brahms Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102. At 14,
Renaud entered the Conservatoire de Paris, studying there with
Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds, winning top prizes in chamber music and violin upon graduation. He went on to study with
Isaac Stern and has played
Stern's Guarneri del Gesù violin in performance. In 1996, he founded the Rencontres artistiques de Bel-Air festival in La Ravoire, near Chambéry, and headed it until 2010; in 2013, he established a new Easter festival in Aix-en-Provence. In 1997,
Capuçon was named concertmaster of the
European Youth Orchestra under conductor
Claudio Abbado. He remained in the position for three years, by which time he had already launched his recording career on the Virgin Classics label with a 1999 recording of Schubert works for violin and piano.
In the early 2000s,
Capuçon gained considerable celebrity as both a performer and recording artist. He often performs French music by the likes of
Franck,
Ravel, and
Dutilleux, but he is also at home in German music from
Beethoven to
Brahms.
Capuçon also performs works by
Kodály,
Halvorsen,
Erwin Schulhoff, and more, as well as contemporary works such as the 2002 Sonata for violin and cello by
Éric Tanguy and a 2015 violin concerto he commissioned from
Wolfgang Rihm.
Capuçon has performed with numerous major orchestras, including the
Berlin Philharmonic and the
Boston Symphony, and he is an enthusiastic chamber music player who has collaborated with pianists
Nicholas Angelich,
Martha Argerich, and
Hélène Grimaud, among others. He has recorded well over 60 albums, mostly for the related Virgin Classics and Erato labels, including a complete cycle of
Beethoven's violin sonatas with pianist
Frank Braley. In 2021,
Capuçon issued three new albums, one of
Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, with
Simon Rattle and the
London Symphony Orchestra, one of
chamber works by contemporary composer Michael Jarrell, and one of
Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa, on which he conducted the
Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne. ~ James Manheim