Paul and Pauline VIARDOT Six Pièces • Six Morceaux • Six Pièces faciles Reto Kuppel, Violin • Wolfgang Manz, Piano Paul Viardot (1857 –1941): Paul Viardot: Paul Viardot (1857 –1941) • Pauline Viardot (1821 –1910) Works for Violin and Piano • 2 Six Pièces (1902) 15:20 Six Pièces faciles (1889) 8:37 1 $ Pauline and Paul Viardot were members of one of the services, also for Rossini’s Otello . They were married in 2 I. Angélus 2:53 % I. Tristesse 1:49 most famous musical families in 19th-century Europe, the 1840. Louis Viardot became known as an art historian 3 II. En barque 2:33 ^ II. Marche 0:59 García family. The clan traced its origin to Manuel del and as translator of Don Quixote . During her career, Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez. Born in 1775 in Seville, Spain, Pauline sang works by Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, 4 III. Résignation 2:57 & III. Chant villageois 1:06 IV. Chinoiserie 1:08 IV. Mauresque 1:49 Manuel was a famous tenor, composer, operatic but also sang contemporary mid-19th-century works by 5 * impresario, and teacher. He took the name of his Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, 6 V. Invocation 2:43 ( V. Indécision 1:43 stepfather (García) and married his first wife in 1798. Both Meyerbeer ( Le Prophète ), Gounod ( Sapho ), and Brahms VI. Petite Valse 2:59 VI. Babillage 1:08 of his famous daughters, Maria Malibran and Pauline (Alto Rhapsody, premiered by Pauline in 1870). Among Viardot, were born to Manuel García’s longtime her admirers were Alfred de Musset, Gounod, Berlioz, 7 Introduction et Caprice (1890) 8:53 Trois Petites pièces (1929) 5:28 companion Maria Joaquina Sitches, a member of his and, most extraordinary of all, Ivan Turgenev, who lived in ) company. In 1807 Manuel and his family travelled to Paris, close proximity to Pauline and her family for 40 years. ¡ I. À l’aurore 1:53 and Maria was born in 1808 (a brother, Manuel Patricio Berlioz stated that ‘her talent is so complete, so varied, Pauline Viardot (1821 –1910): ™ II. En Espagne 1:28 Rodríguez García, had been born in 1805 and later taught she touches so many aspects of the art, she combines so III. Air tendre 2:05 at the Paris Conservatory and the Royal Academy of much spontaneity with so much skill, that she produces at Six Morceaux (1868) 19:38 Music). The family spent time in Naples, London, and once astonishment and emotion.’ Pauline’s compositions 8 £ Paris, and Manuel (the father) became known as one of include operettas, several with librettos by Turgenev, 9 I. Romance 3:10 Gitane (1900–01) 5:19 the great tenors of the time, excelling in roles written for most notably Le Dernier sorcier ; choral works; various 0 II. Bohémienne 2:18 ¢ him by Rossini, among others. Michelle Ferdinande vocal works; and several instrumental works, almost Pauline, Manuel and Joaquina’s youngest child, was born always featuring piano. Pauline Viardot died in Paris on ! III. Berceuse 3:23 Romance pour violon (1889) 3:37 IV. Mazourke 3:21 on 18 July 1821 in Paris. In 1825 the family travelled to 18 May 1910. @ ∞ New York where the troupe presented perhaps the first Paul Viardot was born on 20 July 1857 at the castle of # V. Vieille Chanson 4:14 Romance, Op. 6 (1883) 3:42 season of Italian opera in the United States. Maria, Courtavenel in France, the fourth child and only son of VI. Tarentelle 3:08 § Pauline’s older sister, married François Eugène Malibran Louis and Pauline Viardot. The Viardots moved to Baden- Romance sans paroles (1924) 2:31 in 1826 (perhaps a desperate attempt to leave an abusive Baden when Paul was a young child, and here he studied father), and thereafter Maria Malibran followed her own violin (and quickly became a prodigy) and rubbed ¶ meteoric star, becoming one of the best-known divas in shoulders with the political, literary, and musical elite of Sicilienne (1923) 2:03 the history of music. The rest of the family continued to Europe. He attended boarding school at Carlsruhe, but • Mexico City, returning to Paris in 1829. Pauline studied the Baden-Baden interlude was interrupted by the Danse slave (1923) 3:07 piano and began vocal lessons with her father as Maria Franco-Prussian War, which necessitated the family’s had done earlier, but Manuel died when Pauline was moving to France and then England. After the war the ª eleven years old. Pauline and her mother moved to family returned to Paris where he continued to study Rêverie (c. 1904) 2:30 Brussels and lived with Maria and her companion (later music under César Franck, Théodore Dubois, and Hubert º husband), the violinist Charles de Bériot. Pauline’s sister Léonard. Fauré dedicated one of his first masterpieces, Berceuse (1889) 3:25 Maria died in 1836 after a tragic equestrian accident. the Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major , to Viardot, and it was As a teenager, Pauline sought to perfect her art and premiered in January 1877 at a Société Nationale began appearing in concerts with Bériot, making her concert. Fauré was engaged to Paul’s sister Marianne in operatic debut in London as Desdemona in Rossini’s July 1877, but Marianne broke the engagement several Otello in May 1839. There she met Louis Viardot, director months later. In a 1922 article in Le Guide du concert of the Italian Theatre in Paris, and he engaged her (‘ Saint-Saëns gai’), Viardot describes the fabulous intimate Sunday gatherings at the Viardot household. the famous Pauline, and Marcel Herwegh … average Encyclopedia of the Violin , in which Viardot rates a short Two works from 1923 follow: a short lilting Sicilienne, These soirées featured Saint-Saëns singing in drag to the players of no great artistic importance.’ Flesch is surely description and several listings. Marked Valse lente , the and Danse slave (‘Slavic Dance’). Danse slave , a lively accompaniment of Pauline, or dancing sequences from unfair in his criticism, both concerning Viardot and ‘salon’ piano begins meditatively before swinging into a faster rhythmic dance, features double stops, fast alternation operas such as Robert le diable . On Friday evenings a music. The works on this recording show a depth of tempo. The intensity increases throughout and the work between bowed and pizzicato notes, and harmonics. more serious spirit reigned, as Saint-Saëns accompanied feeling and elan that is evident in every piece. Viardot’s concludes with a presto ending. The final pieces are quiet meditative works: Rêverie Pauline on the piano or organ. Paul toured Spain with gift of melody is always to the fore, and while pieces such The next three works are romances: Romance (1889), (circa 1904) and Berceuse (1889). Both are melodic gentle Saint-Saëns in 1880, traveling to Russia in 1881 (where as the Introduction et Caprice display all the usual Romance (Op. 6 , 1883; played muted throughout), and works ending high on a long-held harmonic on the E string. he experienced the ‘full nihilistic terror’ of the Cossacks), virtuoso ‘bells and whistles’, Viardot’s music never Romance sans paroles (‘Romance Without Words’, 1924). with further engagements in Warsaw and Riga. He made indulges in technique for its own sake. All show Viardot’s gift of melody and ability to create a Bruce Schueneman seven trips to Sweden, and travelled to North and South The set of Six Pièces (1902) includes Angélus (a long-breathed singing line. America. In 1899 he travelled to the Transvaal, and in Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation), En 1902 conducted the premiere of Saint-Saëns’ Parysatis . barque ('On a Boat'), Résignation , Chinoiserie (a fast- Though well established in the musical world of his time, paced China-inspired piece), Invocation and Petite Valse . he remained in the shadow of his mother and aunt. In a The Introduction et Caprice (1890) features many Paul Viardot (1857 –1941) • Pauline Viardot (1821 –1910) short book of memoirs written in 1910, he describes his virtuoso techniques: double stops, long quick runs, and Œuvres pour violon et piano • 2 feelings: ‘The name of an illustrious father or mother is harmonics. The introduction begins slowly and contains a terribly heavy to carry, as I well know! Nothing is more cadenza; the Caprice , in 9/8 time, is marked Allegro Pauline et Paul Viardot appartenaient à l’une des plus rend à Mexico, puis retourne à Paris en 1829. Pauline fait difficult than to cease being someone’s son.’ During moderato and is full of intense energy. célèbres familles musicales de l’Europe du XIX e siècle, l’apprentissage du piano et commence à prendre des World War I he served as a reserve lieutenant, and was Pauline Viradot’s Six Morceaux (1868) is dedicated to les García, dont on peut remonter la lignée jusqu’à leçons de chant avec son père comme l’avait fait Maria employed as an interpreter. After the war, suffering from ‘son fils Paul’. At the time Paul was ten or eleven years Manuel del Pópulo Vicente Rodriguez. Né en 1775 à avant elle. Cependant, Manuel meurt alors que Pauline bronchitis that made the Parisian climate unsuitable, he old, and no doubt these pieces formed part of Paul’s early Séville, Manuel était un fameux ténor, compositeur, n’a que onze ans. Celle-ci déménage avec sa mère à accepted an invitation from the Ministry of Fine Arts to repertoire. The six pieces include Romance , Bohémienne imprésario d’opéra et professeur. Il prit le nom de son Bruxelles et vit avec sa sœur Maria et le compagnon (plus serve in North Africa. At first posted to Tunis, he soon (‘Bohemian’ or ‘Gypsy’, an energetic gypsy piece in 2/4 beau-père (García) et se maria pour la première fois en tard mari) de celle-ci, le violoniste Charles de Bériot.