Un Portrait – Victor Aviat

An internationally renowned oboist, Victor Aviat was a soloist with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado, and Ivan Fischer’s Budapest Festival Orchestra for 20 years. He also studied piano, composition, and conducting. His first work as a composer was performed by the Orchestre National de France under the baton of Emmanuel Krivine (his stepfather) in 2019. Victor Aviat died on 1 May 2025 in Berlin following a sudden illness. This double album pays tribute to this multi-talented artist. Victor was also a painter and author of poems, which he set to music and performed himself. This portrait presents a double programme, with pieces for oboe and piano by Robert Schumann (recorded in 2024 with pianist Kim Barbier) and his 17 songs… The booklet accompanying this double album includes an illustration for each song as well as some of his paintings and a text he wrote ‘to young musicians’. Like his self-portrait, with his face half submerged in darkness, Victor Aviat’s songs offer us glimpses of his inner life and feelings through allusions and clues. To keep alive the memory of Victor Aviat, both as an artist and as a man.