Berlioz Essays, Reviews, Talks
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DISCOVERING BERLIOZ ESSAYS, REVIEWS, TALKS DAVID CAIRNS Foreword by SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER David Cairns on Music Volume One Musicians on Music No. 12 To Rosemary, and in honour of Colin Davis and his forebears and successors !is collection "rst published by Toccata Press, 2019. © David Cairns, 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from the copyright holder or publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-907689-58-4 ISSN 0264-6889 Set in 11 on 12 point Minion Pro by Kerrypress Ltd, St Albans Contents Page Foreword Sir John Eliot Gardiner 11 Prelude: Life with Berlioz 13 Acknowledgements 21 Preamble 27 A Tragic Life 29 Autobiography/Biography 37 I: Early Life 57 The Distant God 59 Berlioz and Song 71 La Côte-Saint-André 82 Two Sisters 91 II: Apprenticeship and First Maturity 105 Messe solennelle 107 Shakespeare – Our Father 122 The Mighty Bird 138 The March to the Scaffold 152 ‘Programme Music’ and the Symphonie fantastique 156 The Two Italies 171 Harold en Italie, the Viola and the Stage Directions in the Score 188 III: The 1830s 189 The Journalist, the Writer: 191 Berlioz and the Music of the Past 191 Selected Letters of Berlioz 193 Evenings in the Orchestra, Memoirs 196 Benvenuto Cellini 208 The Dramatic Symphony Roméo et Juliette 219 Roméo et Juliette: An Alternative Reading 230 IV: The 1840s 231 The Grand Traité: Origins and Genesis 233 Holy Germany, a Nation of Musicians 251 5 6 Contents La Damnation de Faust: 270 Germany and La Damnation 270 Mephisto – the devil it is! 271 Berlioz, The Damnation of Faust and the Critics 273 Ceaseless Vigilance 277 The Damnation on Disc 280 Les Nuits d’été 288 V: Berlioz and Politics 291 The Reluctant Conservative 293 Berlioz and Napoleon III 305 VI: The 1850s and Les Troyens 307 Les Troyens and the Aeneid 309 The 1957 Trojans 334 The Historical Significance of 1957 341 Les Troyens: the Philips Recording 343 Les Troyens in Hamburg 345 In Defence of the Theatricality of Les Troyens 348 Les Troyens and Colin Davis 352 Munch or Davis? 359 Epilogue 363 Two Hundred Years On 365 Appendix 377 Three Berlioz People: Appreciations 377 Catherine Reboul-Berlioz-Vercier 377 Ian Kemp 379 Pierre Citron 380 Select Bibliography 383 Index of Berlioz’s Works 385 General Index 387 List of Illustrations Les Troyens, Act 1, autograph full score 15 David Cairns with Stella, Bamburgh, 1929 17 58 Queen Anne St, London W1, with plaque 18 Berlioz conductors I: Edouard Colonne, Hans von Bülow, Felix Mottl, Charles Hallé, Hans Richter, Felix von Weingartner 22 Berlioz conductors II: Arthur Nikisch, Gustav Mahler, Charles Munch, Sir Hamilton Harty, Sir Thomas Beecham, Pierre Monteux 23 Dr Louis Berlioz and his Livre de Raison 41 Berlioz by Nadar 45 Gluck, Iphigénie en Tauride, copied by Berlioz in 1822 47 A page from chapter 22 of the Memoirs 49 Alexander von Humboldt, by Julius Schrader, 1859 51 Claude Lorrain, View of Carthage with Dido and Aeneas, 1675 or 1676 56 Grande Messe des morts, autograph full score, p. 1 64 A page from chapter 4 of the Memoirs 75 The ‘Chanson d’Hylas’ from Act 5 of Les Troyens 81 Anonymous caricature of Berlioz, La Côte-Saint-André, 1845 83 The Berlioz garden and house, rue de la République, La Côte-Saint-André 85 Adèle Suat née Berlioz 93 Autograph letter to Nancy Berlioz, 28 July 1827 96 Nancy Berlioz 98 Autograph letter to Albert Du Boys, 20 July 1825 109 The church of Saint-Roch, Paris 110–11 Autograph title page of the Messe solennelle 113 Jean-François Le Sueur 114 First page of the Kyrie of the Messe solennelle 118 First page of the Offertoire of the Grande Messe des morts 119 A page from chapter 18 of the Memoirs: the advent of Shakespeare 123 Harriet Smithson as the demented Ophelia in Hamlet 129 A page from chapter 18 of the Memoirs: the impact of Romeo and Juliet 130 Autograph letter to Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, 24 June 1856 136 L’andante de la symphonie en la: watercolour by Eugène Lami, 1840 146 Autograph letter to Humbert Ferrand, 6 February 1830 158 7 8 List of Illustrations Page 2 of the autograph full score of the Symphonie fantastique 168 ‘D’une image, hélas’ from Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in Berlioz’s hand 179 The Villa Medici, Rome 180 Corot, Roman Campagna with Claudian aqueduct, 1826 182 Autograph letter to his sister Nancy, 9 May 1831 184 Pifferari in Rome 186 Journal des débats, 24 May 1846: Berlioz on the state of the Opéra 198 Title page of Voyage musical, inscribed to Berlioz’s son, Louis 204 Autograph full score of the Sextet from Act 2 of Benvenuto Cellini 214 Lithograph by Benjamin from La Caricature provisoire, 1 November 1838 217 Recording Benvenuto Cellini, Wembley Town Hall, July 1972 218 Charles Kemble and Harriet Smithson in the tomb scene from Romeo and Juliet, 1827 226 Autograph full score of Roméo et Juliette, finale 228 A page from chapter 4 of the Memoirs 235 Portrait of Gluck by Duplessis 237 Title page of the Grand Traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes 240 The Grand Traité on the flute 249 Sketch by August Prinzhofer, 1845 254 Lithograph by Prinzhofer, 1846 255 Painting by Richard Lauchert, 1855 258 Peter Cornelius 263 Liszt in 1858 267 Delacroix, lithograph of Faust and Mephistopheles, 1827 272 Jacques Barzun 277 Autograph first page of ‘Absence’ 290 Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov, painted by Repin in 1883 295 A page from chapter 2 of the Memoirs: the death of Dido 311 A study (1873) of Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein by Ernest Hébert 313 Title page of the 1861 edition of the vocal score of Les Troyens 315 Mosaic of Virgil, flanked by muses 317 Set designs for the 1863 production of ‘Les Troyens à Carthage’ 321, 323, 325 Guérin’s Énée racontant à Didon les malheurs de la ville de Troie 326 Sketch of the beginning of the love duet, ‘Nuit d’ivresse’, Les Troyens, Act 4 330–31 Rafael Kubelík 335 A scene from the 1957 Trojans at Covent Garden 336 List of Illustrations 9 Amy Shuard, Blanche Thebom and Jon Vickers 339 Colin Davis by June Mendoza 357 Minutes of the Athenaeum, recording Berlioz’s temporary membership, 1848 366 George Bernard Shaw 368 Berlioz torchbearers: Russell Brown, David Cairns, Hugh Macdonald, Richard Macnutt, Julian Rushton and John Warrack 370 Sir Roger Norrington 371 Sir John Eliot Gardiner 371 Catherine Reboul-Berlioz-Vercier, with François Lesure and Lucien Chamard-Bois 378 Ian Kemp 379 Pierre Citron 381.