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P Aufinz'liar Fo T Paufinz'liar fo t- Qarcia ( 1 521 -1 9 10) Famousin her lifetime as a singerand as a collaboratorwith Berlioz, Meyerbeer,Gounod, and Massenet,Pauline Viardot-Garcia was alsoan activecomposer who publishednearly 200 s_o1lgsbetwe_en 1841 and 1905. Thesesongs were known and admiredby Chopin, Liszi, Schumann,Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saens,among others, and Viardot herself,writing to a friend in 1864,noted "I believethat I am more proudof the moneythat my little musicaljottings have broughtme thanof thatwhich I haveearned as a singer."1- The daughterof Manuel Garcia,Rossini's favorite tenor, and the sisterof Maria Malibran and Manuel Garcia,Jr., Viardot was born into a family wheremusical prowess was expected.Her husbandLouis Viardot resignedhis positionas the administratorof the Th6itre Italien in Parisat the time of his marriageto the young diva, twenty yearshis junior, but maintainedhis active interestin political and culturalaffairs. Their artisticand intellectual circle includedIngres, Delacroix,Hugo, Dickens,Heine, Turgenev, Meyerbeer, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Gounod, Berlioz,Rossini, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Faur6, Tchaikovsky, and Rubinstein. Ceorge Sand consideredViardot her prot6g6e,modeling her novel Consueloon her. Clara Schumannwas a lifelong friend,and her comment, "she is themost gifted woman I haveever known"2 is widely quoted.It is indicativeof Viardot'scha,racter that at theage of seventy-sevenshe described a life so full andactive as "quietand uneventful."3 Viardot was fluent in five Ianguagesand widely traveledas a resultof concerttours and operaengagements throughout Europe. In htlr travels,shc absorbed not only the languages,but the musicalidioms of the countrieswhere she lived andworked. Her compositionsare thus a reflectionof songwriting acrossthe continent for morethan half a century.ltalian folksongs, Frenchsalon pieces, and Germanart songsall camefrom her pen. Thougha gracefulmelodic instinct is common throughoutthe work, the stylesvary from folk-inspiredItalian and Spanish songsto intenselyemotional settings of Goethe,Mcjrike, Pushkin, and Turgenev. Althoughthe natureof Viardot'srelationship with Turgenevmay neverbe fully known, it is indisputablethat their ernotionalir.nd professional ties providedsustenance, fron their first meeting,during Viardot's first seasonwith the St. Petersburgopera in 1843,until the Russian writer'sdeath at his cottageadjacent to the Viardot homenear Paris, forty yearslater. Turgenev arrangedfbr the publicationof severalcollections of Viardotsongs in St.Petersburg, assisted in the selectionof texts,arranged for Germantranslations, and provided the librettosfor severalof Viardot'soperettas. The presentcollection was first publishedin St. Petersburgin 1864and issued the following yearby Breitkopf & Hiirtel in Leipzig with Germantranslations by Fr. Bodenstedt. The Viardotfanily (with Turgenevnext door) was then living in BadenBaden, and would do so 's until 1870. AlthoughFrench songs predominate in Viardot output,the Russianand German textsare of a higherliterary standard,and Viardot matchesthem in both the vocal andpiano writing. The publisherindicated that thesetwelve songswere for soprano,mezzo, alto, and baritone,but it is the emotionalrange that is most varied,for all may be sungby a medium voice. "Das Bllimlein" and "Zwer Rosen"present a vocal line of greatsimplicity andtenderness, while the leapsand chromaticismof "Auf Grusien'sHi.igeln" and "MitterniichtigeBilder" portray interior storms. "Ruhigeheilige Nacht," by contrast,embodies the peaceof contentedlove. An accomplishedpianist who had studiedwith Liszt andconsidered a careeras a concertsoloist, Viardot makesthe piano an equalpartner with the voice,evoking the darknessin "Mitterniichtige Bilder" or the breezesof "Fliistern,athemscheues Lauschen." The songsof Viardot aremaking their way back into the repertoireof singersin this country and abroad. It is hopedthat this collectionwill nurturethis renewedinteiest and lead to further moderneditions of her many songs. Singersmay well cometo apply to her compositions the praisegiven by one of her greatadmirers to her performances:"Her iatent is so complete,so varied," wrote Berlioz, "it toucheson so many aspectsof the art, it so unitesscience and such captivatingspontaneity, that it producesat the sametime astonishmentand emotion; it surprises andmoves, it challengesand it persuades."4 This projectwould not havebeen possible without the encouragementand assistanceof many people. I would like to thankPhyllis Bryn Julsonfor first introducingme to Viardot as a composer,and to thank CharlesSens of the Library of Congress,Mark Markham of the Peabody Conservatory,Nanette Butler Shannonof TowsonState University, Clarity James of Radford University and Gillian Cooksonof WashingtonD.C. for their assistancein the preparationof these songs. Grantsfrom the PeabodyConservatory and the Delta OmicronFoundation underwrote in part the researchexpenses of this project. CatherineSentman Anderson 1994 Notes 1 "Lettrein6dit de PaulineViardot a LP" (CollectionJeurne Goupille, Baden Baden, 22Feb. 1864). Crthiers lvan Tourgudniev,Puuline Viardot,Maria Malibran, no. I l ( 1987),p. 43. 2 BertholdLitzmann, Clara Schumann:An Artist'sLife, Basedon Materialfountl in Diaries and Letters,trans. and abridged from the4th editionby GraceE. Hadrow(London: Macmillan & Co., l9l3).vol 2. p.225. 3 "PaulineViardot's Family (from PersonalConversations)," Musical Courierno. 36 (12 January 1898),p. 15. a HectorBerlioz, A traversChants, ed. L6on Guichard.(Paris: Gri.jnd, 19ll), p. 141. Preface The songs of Pauline Viardot-Garcia, as well as the life itself of this unique musician, have been of great interest to me for more than thirty years. I have had the pleasure of performing several of Ms. Viardot- Garcia's songs on the concert stages of the United States and Europe - - from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York to London and cities in Germany, Portugal and Italy, to name a few. Witl-rout exception these songs have been received with great enthusiasm and enjoyment by the lay person and trained musician as well as the musical scholar. i am delighted that the twelve songs contained in this new antl-rology will bring even more of Ms. Viardot-Garcia's works to the general public as well as the professional musician for many years to come. Marilyn Horne August 1994.
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