8.111381 bk Cortot_EU 26-07-2010 18:06 Pagina 4 Henry Purcell, arr. Henderson: Felix Mendelssohn: ADD 1 Minuet in G major 2:21 0 Song Without Words in E, Op. 19, No. 1 3:32 2 Sicilienne in G minor 1:01 Recorded on 19th May 1937 Great Pianists • Cortot 8.111381 3 Gavotte in G major 1:09 in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London 4 Air in G major 1:20 Mat. 2EA 4946; Cat. DB 3267 Recorded on 26th October 1937 in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London César Franck: PURCELL Mats. OEA 5508 and 5509; Cat. DA 1609 Prélude, Chorale and Fugue 17:11 ! Prélude 4:44 Johann Sebastian Bach, arr. Cortot: @ Chorale 5:50 Concerto in D minor, BWV 596 9:57 # Fugue 6:37 BACH (after Vivaldi Concerto Op. 3, No. 11) Recorded on 6th and 19th March 1929 5 Praeludium 2:57 in the Small Queen’s Hall, London 6 Sicilienne 2:56 Mats. Cc 15975/78; Cat. DB 1299/1300 MENDELSSOHN 7 Toccata 4:04 Recorded on 18th May 1937 César Franck: in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London Prélude, Aria and Finale 20:54 FRANCK Mats. 2EA4930/32; Cat. DB 3261/62 $ Prélude 8:42 % Aria 5:46 Johann Sebastian Bach, arr. Cortot: ^ Finale 6:26 SAINT-SAËNS 8 Arioso (Arrangement of Largo Recorded on 8th March 1932 from Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056) 3:05 in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London Recorded on 18th May 1937 Mats. 2B 849/54; Cat. DB 1695/97 in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London Mat. 2EA 4933; Cat. DB 3262 Camille Saint-Saëns: & Étude en forme de Valse, Op. 52, No. 6 4:32 Felix Mendelssohn: Recorded on 13th May 1931 9 Variations Sérieuses, Op. 54 10:46 in the Small Queen’s Hall, London Recorded on 19th May 1937 Mat. 2B 880; Cat. DB 1535 in EMI Studio No. 3, Abbey Road, London Mats. 2EA 4940/42; Cat. DB 3266/67 Alfred Cortot Special thanks to Donald Manildi 1929-1937 Recordings 8.111381 4 8.111381 bk Cortot_EU 26-07-2010 18:06 Pagina 2 Great Pianists: Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) earlier, in May 1937, he was in the same studio four sides of the Prélude, Chorale and Fugue and PURCELL • BACH • MENDELSSOHN • FRANCK • SAINT-SAËNS recording other baroque works in transcriptions for Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques. At the second piano. On the 18th May (in a session that included a session he recorded Chopin’s Four Ballades; at the The son of a French father and Swiss mother, Alfred which he appointed a hand-picked staff. Cortot himself recording of Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze) he third, Liszt’s Piano Sonata with a Chopin Nocturne and Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland in 1877. During taught there until 1961; his most famous students recorded a concerto by Vivaldi that had been arranged Waltz, and at the fourth made retakes including sides his childhood the family moved to Paris and young include Magda Tagliaferro, Clara Haskil and Yvonne by Bach for organ as Concerto in D minor, BWV 596. one, three and four of the Franck work. Also during this Alfred joined the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine Lefébure. According to the session sheets the title is time in London he performed Franck’s Piano Quintet where he studied piano firstly with Emile Descombes A. M. Henderson, born in 1879, was a Glaswegian ‘Transcription of Concerto da Camera (Vivaldi, trans. on the 12th March and Franck’s Variations (1829–1912) and, from the age of fifteen, with Louis musician, remembered primarily for his volume of Cortot) although Cortot’s arrangement sounds like a Symphoniques at the Queen’s Hall on the 21st March Diémer (1843–1919). Cortot made his début in 1897 Musical Memories and his educational editions of transcription of an organ work and he probably used the with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Thomas with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, music for the piano. A substantial output included six Bach score. After this he recorded his own arrangement Beecham. A description of the latter performance Op. 37, and gave piano duet recitals with Edouard volumes of Rediscovered Classics for the Piano, and for solo piano of the Largo movement from Bach’s perfectly sums up the pianist’s playing of Franck: ‘M. Risler (1873–1929) playing arrangements for four various volumes of Old English Masters, Early Classic Keyboard Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056, as ‘Aria Cortot’s clarity of mind gives to his playing its unique hands of music by Wagner. His enthusiasm for the Masters, Masterpieces of Russian Piano Music, Graded from Concerto in F minor (Bach trans. Cortot)’. The architectural quality; he builds before your very ears an German composer led to his appointment as choral Piano Duets from the Classical Masters, as well as following day Cortot made his first of three recordings edifice whose plan you know quite well but whose coach, then assistant conductor at Bayreuth working three volumes of his own transcriptions for piano from of Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses with a Song formal perfection is now newly revealed.’ under Felix Mottl and Hans Richter. Cortot’s the works of Bach. Henderson was organist and without Words as a filler for the last side. After making In May and June 1930 Cortot devoted five days to experiences in Bayreuth left him eager to introduce choirmaster at the University of Glasgow and had two takes of each side he then ended the session by recording in Paris, where he set down, amongst other Wagner’s music to French audiences, and in 1902 he studied organ with Widor. His piano teachers were no making one of his most famous recordings, Liszt’s St things, Franck’s Prélude, Aria and Finale and Saint- founded the Société des Festivals Lyriques, through less impressive as he received tuition from Scharwenka, Françoise de Paule marchant sur les flots (Naxos Saëns’s Etude en forme de Valse, Op. 52, No. 6, but it which in May of the same year he conducted the Paris Pugno and Cortot. It was this last association that led 8.112012). appears that none of the material from these sessions première of Götterdämmerung. The following year Henderson to dedicate ‘To my friend M. Alfred Cortot’ Cortot was one of the greatest exponents of the was issued. A year later, at the Small Queen’s Hall, he Cortot organized another society enabling him to give his volume of fifteen Popular Pieces for the Piano by music of César Franck and his recordings of the recorded both works again, the Saint-Saëns being performances of major works such as Brahms’s Purcell in 1938. Henderson was keen to make available Variations Symphoniques and the two masterpieces for issued. Those who doubt Cortot’s technique need look Requiem, Liszt’s St Elisabeth, Beethoven’s Missa music he thought unjustly neglected in practical solo piano Prélude, Chorale and Fugue and Prélude, no further than his recording of this technically Solemnis and Wagner’s Parsifal, and not long after he editions. As he states in his Foreword ‘Although Purcell Aria and Finale still stand among the most impressive demanding work where he dismisses all obstacles with became conductor of the Société Nationale, promoting is generally regarded as the greatest of English committed to disc, as Cortot knows exactly how to a lightness of touch. It was not until March 1932, with works by contemporary French composers. composers... his keyboard music and many fine pieces handle a large structure and communicate the dark Cortot playing a Blüthner piano, that a satisfactory Cortot was a multi-faceted musician, a conductor for strings are still far too little known and played.’ He brooding mystery at the heart of these works. Between result was achieved with the Franck, although some of and chamber music player as well as solo pianist. He makes no bones about this not being a scholarly edition, the 6th and the 19th March 1929 Cortot had four the sides required between four and seven takes. formed a famous piano trio with Jacques Thibaud and ‘This edition being intended entirely for practical recording sessions at the Small Queen’s Hall in London Pablo Casals, but it was as a pianist for which he purposes, and not simply as an historical document, the using a Pleyel piano. On the 6th March he recorded all © 2010 Jonathan Summers became renowned. He was appointed by Gabriel Fauré pieces have been carefully revised, edited, and fingered. to a teaching post at the Paris Conservatoire, but was in Only in this way, I felt, could the book be of real value such demand as a performer that he was invariably to both teacher and pupil... It will interest and encourage away on tour. In 1918 Cortot made his first tour of young students especially, to know that the pieces in America, and during his second tour in 1920 he played this book have already been seen, appreciated, and all five of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos in two played by such distinguished artists as Cortot, Marcel evenings and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in Dupré, Medtner and Rachmaninoff.’ D minor, Op. 30, with the composer present. Also at this Cortot selected four pieces in the same key and time he founded the Ecole Normale de Musique for recorded them on a Steinway piano. Five months 8.111381 2 3 8.111381 8.111381 bk Cortot_EU 26-07-2010 18:06 Pagina 2 Great Pianists: Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) earlier, in May 1937, he was in the same studio four sides of the Prélude, Chorale and Fugue and PURCELL • BACH • MENDELSSOHN • FRANCK • SAINT-SAËNS recording other baroque works in transcriptions for Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques.