One wag commented on a performance of Debussy’s impressionistic magnum opus conducted by George Szell, “He tried Debussy’s ‘La Mer’ once. It came out as ‘Das Merde.’”
Great conductor. Great composer. But not all marriages are meant to be (as Debussy well knew).
Happy birthday, Claude Debussy!
Debussy in the W.C.?
Great photo of my friend, Robert Stallman, footloose and fancy free in Greece in 1969, playing Debussy’s “Syrinx.” Note the kid goat. Bob died last Sunday at the age of 73.
It’s music to get Camille Saint-Saëns’ blood boiling, on the next “Music from Marlboro.”
Saint-Saëns was the dedicatee of the Piano Quintet in F minor by his friend, César Franck. But as he sight-read through the piano part at the work’s premiere in 1879, he became more and more agitated, angry even. At the conclusion of the piece, he rejected Franck’s attempt to shake his hand, and stormed off without acknowledging the applause.
He wasn’t the only one. Franck’s wife also made no secret of hating it.
Here was music of sublimated desire, and everyone knew the cause. Saint-Saëns knew, because he felt the same way about Franck’s pupil, Augusta Holmès. Franck tutored Holmès in organ and composition. No doubt he admired her musical talent, but equally there was no doubt his interest went beyond that of master-disciple. Don’t let those mutton chops fool you. A man is only flesh and blood.
There must have been something about Holmès, the French composer of Irish descent, because she had the same effect on just about every man she crossed paths with. Saint-Saëns had proposed marriage to her multiple times, always without success. He would refer to her as a “beautiful pythoness.” Methinks his vines had tender sour grapes.
We’ll hear a performance of Franck’s incendiary piece, featuring pianist Mitsuko Uchida, violinists Soovin Kim and David McCarroll, violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, and cellist Matthew Zalkind, from the 2012 Marlboro Music Festival.
The hour will open with a work by Claude Debussy. Debussy composed “En blanc et noir” in 1915, making it one of his later creations, contemporaneous with the Cello Sonata, the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, and the Etudes for solo piano.
It is to be remembered that Saint-Saëns, who basically lived forever, was 80 years-old by this time. He loathed the work. “We must at all costs bar the door of the Institute against a man capable of such atrocities,” he fumed. “They should be put next to the cubist pictures.”
The first movement, an energetic waltz, is dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky; the second, a somber slow movement, to Debussy’s friend, Jacques Charlot, who was killed during the First World War; and the third, a playful scherzando, to Igor Stravinsky.
We’ll hear it played at Marlboro in 2017 by pianists Xiaohui Yang and Cynthia Raim.
The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest, thanks to Saint-Saëns’ anger management issues, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
BONUS: Tune in early to hear one of Holmès’ symphonic poems in the 5:00 hour!
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Saint-Saëns, all dressed up with nowhere to go; Franck at the organ; Holmès with her je ne sais crois; Debussy, transfixed by a cigarette
Claude Debussy’s “Rondes de printemps” has kicked off the second day of our three-day fundraiser on The Classical Network.
It doesn’t matter what time of year it is. Great music has the power to transport, uplift, and, above all, enrich the quality of our lives. Thanks to dedicated and generous listeners just like you, musique de Debussy et ses amis is always in season.
Unfortunately, there is no Maginot Line to keep classical music free. Please make a donation now at 1-888-232-1212 or online at wwfm.org. A steady diet of vin rouge et musique classique has been proven to lead to longer life and plenty of l’amour. Even if it hasn’t, at least you’ll have had a good time, and with plenty of bon goût.
Hear the difference! And merci beaucoup for supporting WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
“Mais alors, le phonographe electronique est si limité à côté de WWFM!”
With summer vacation winding down – and some even back to school already, poor dears – we’ll take one last trip to the beach. On today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, it’s another program from the Cape May Music Festival.
The New York Chamber Ensemble will present “Folk Dance in Chamber Music,” with repertoire including works by Béla Bartók, Luigi Boccherini, Astor Piazzolla, and Antonin Dvořák, alongside arrangements by Robert Beaser.
Following the concert broadcast, stick around for Rick Sowash’s “Cape May Suite.” Sowash, who makes his home in Ohio, fondly recalls vacationing in South Jersey with his family.
Then cast off with music by the Breton composer Jean Cras. Like Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Albert Roussel, Cras was a navy man. Impressions of the sea saturate many of his works, a number of which were actually written in a ship’s cabin. We’ll hear his symphonic suite, “Journal de bord,” which, like Debussy’s “La mer,” attempts to convey the moods of the sea at different hours of the day.
Rimsky-Korsakov had retired from active service by the time he came to write his Quintet for Piano and Winds. Even so, he had been appointed to the civilian post of Inspector of Naval Bands. We’ll hear a performance of Rimsky’s cheery quintet featuring members of the Munich Residenz Quintet and Wolfgang Sawallisch at the keyboard.
I believe it was Igor Stravinsky who once said, “A good composer does not imitate; he steals.” No one is going to claim the Flemish composer Paul Gilson’s “De Zee” (“The Sea”) is one of the world’s great masterpieces, but clearly there is something to it for Debussy to have borrowed so shamelessly from it when he came to write “La mer.”
Jacques Ibert served in the Navy during World War I. Before our time is out, we’ll travel to destinations around the Mediterranean – in Italy, North Africa, and Spain – with Ibert’s symphonic suite “Escales” (“Ports of Call”).
You won’t have to join the Navy to see the world. We’ve got one in every port, this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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