Sergej RACHMANINOW
Concerto pour piano et orchestre No 3 en ré mineur, Op. 30
Monique de La BRUCHOLLERIE
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Ernest ANSERMET
14 décembre 1951, Symphony Hall, Boston
Sergej Rachmaninow compose son Troisième Concerto pour piano au cours de l’été 1909, dans son
domaine d’Ivanovka, dans la perspective de sa tournée américaine: en octobre, il s’embarque en direction des États-Unis, sans avoir eu le temps de travailler son oeuvre. C’est sur le bateau seulement qu'il le fait, sur un piano silencieux, afin d'être prêt pour la première audition du 28 novembre 1909, avec le New York Symphony Orchestra sous la direction de Walter Damrosch.
"[...] D'une écriture pianistique redoutable pour le soliste («Un concerto pour les éléphants» disait son auteur en forme de boutade!), d'une longueur peu commune, d'une ampleur orchestrale monumentale, d'une invention mélodique jaillissante, il réunit les qualités d'inspiration et de construction, de style et de structure, qui se font l'écho de la psychologie personnelle de l'auteur - et pourrait bien réconcilier profanes et puristes. [...]" cité d'un texte d'Étienne Moreau, 1994, publié dans cette brochure de Naxos du site Chandos.
Une courte description citée du même texte:
"[...] Des trois mouvements, le 1er (Allegro non tanto) est certainement le plus ample. Son premier thème, extrêmement simple sur les plans mélodique et pianistique, est d’un dépouillement désarmant, laissant mal augurer des nombreux développements qu’il connaîtra par la suite; plus ostensiblement lyrique, le second thème a un rôle pourtant beaucoup plus discret. Car c’est bien ce premier thème qui est à lui seul le support de tout le mouvement, amenant un premier point culminant véritablement tourmenté, et surtout la cadence, puis enfin une longue coda décroissante. A propos de la cadence, précisons qu’il en existe deux variantes: l’une «courte» quoique déjà extrêmement virtuose, l’autre "longue" et d’une difficulté pianistique accrue et d’une invention mélodique beaucoup plus poussée.
Le 2e mouvement (Intermezzo) présente une forme tripartite originale, d’abord constituée d’une série de variations du piano sur un thème douloureusement exposé par l’orchestre, et ensuite d’une partie centrale aux allures de Scherzo très vif, qui débouche enfin sur une courte transition se servant du thème initial pour amener le finale (Alla breve), directement enchaîné. Celui-ci possède également une forme à trois volets, dont les contours sont moins apparents, en raison d’un mouvement de chevauchée énergique et brillante, également à cause de la grande concentrationdes idées musicales et la profusion des thèmes, où l’on distingue la réapparition des deux thèmes du mouvement initial, le tout sous le couvert d’une virtuosité rarement atteinte. [...]"
L'interprétation qui en est proposée ici est exceptionnelle! D'une part Ernest ANSERMET n'a laissé que très peu d'enregistrements d'oeuvres de Sergej Rachmaninow - il dirige ici en plus un autre orchestre que le sien -, mais aussi d'autre part à cause de la soliste - Monique de La BRUCHOLLERIE, dont c'était le début aux USA.
Pourquoi en 1951 à Boston? Charles MÜNCH, de 1949 à 1962 chef titulaire du Boston Symphony Orchestra, étant malade, il invita Ernest ANSERMET - qu'il connaissait et appréciait de longue date - à le remplacer pour quelques concerts:
publié dans le quotidien «The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)» du 27 novembre 1951 en page 18
Ernest Ansermet était déjà bien connu aux USA. Pour Boston, sa venue était un tel évènement, que même son départ par avion de Genève fut annoncé dans la presse locale...
publié dans le quotidien «The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)» du 5 décembre 1951 en page 8
... avec d'une courte présentation le 9 décembre suivant:
"[...] ANSERMET
Continued from the First Page
«I am not writing my memoirs, but a theoretical book on music. Perhaps it could be called a philosophy of music, but it is far from complete because of lack of time.»
There was to be a three-months vacation this Winter in which to finish the book but, says Ansermet, «the sudden call to Boston made this this impossible».
There are no particular American experiences he will quote in his book, but he will have more than a word to say on the current state of music.
Composers in Crisis
It is his theory that at present young composers are going through serious crisis which is coupled with the general world crisis.
«But there are, of course», he compromises, «certain talents, especially in Europe. Overseas the young composers do produce quite a lot, but it i is not quantity alone which counts.
Because of this crisis, I decided to write my philosophy of music in which I shall try to show the young composers a way out of their crisis».
A good man at answering a question, Ansermet does no hedging on his «five best orchestras» list.
«In my opinion the two best European orchestras are the Vienna and the Berlin Philharmonics», he says.
«After that come the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris, the orchestra in Amsterdam and the Augusteo Roma. But all these last», he says, «are really absolutely equal and I cannot say that one is better than the other»
American orchestras? At the top he puts the Philadelphia, Boston and New York (Philharmonic and N. B.C.) in the same bracket.
«Also very good are the Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco». He has words of praise for the Dallas Tex. group - «a very promising young body»
American Composers
Ansermet would like to see an about-face by the young American composers attempting to get their feet on the first rungs of the musical ladder.
«We Europeans feel that young Americans should try first to make a name in America and then come to us, but they themselves are trying the other way around. Forced by public opinion, they first try to make a name with us and take this as a basis for their publicity and success at home».
He is worried over the shortages of young string players. «The answer to the shortage is easy», he says. «Most of the young string players came from Jewish circles, mostly from Germany and, as Hitler killed off at least one generation, the shortage occurred». He adds: «Of course, the shortage mainly affects soloists, not orchestra players». In his opinion, Isaac Stern, 31-year-old American violinist, is «a very promising young soloist».
Boston Programs
Ansermet already has selected some of the offerings he will make to Bostonians this Winter. They include classical works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn and Schumann. «I shall also offer Hindemith, Bartok and works by the American composer, Samuel Barber», he promises.
Although music has provided the main accompaniment to Ansermet's life since his earliest days, it was not until he was 26 that he realized conducting was his true metier. The eldest of seven children, he was born on the shores of Lake Geneva in the town of Vevey, Nov 11, 1883. His father was a geometry teacher in the local school, his mother, also a teacher, had musical inclinations. His first cries, to her, contained «a very musical note», she always maintained.
Ernest was no great shakes as a his time at the lakeside fetes than scholar. His teacher told his mother she «could do nothing with him». He was just a healthy, noisy, boisterous boy, who would rather spend with his books.
All through this period music pulled at him, but he was no «prodigy» in his violin lessons. He obviously had talent. «My boy», his music master told him when he was 14, «you are destined to go as far as that». The master raised his hand to measure a giant. «But», he continued, «you are so lazy you'll never get further than that». The master lowered tne hand to measure a dwarf.
His First Job
Ernest got himself his first job at 22 - as mathematics professor at the local school. He went on to scientific college and became - he is still surprised - something of an expert on foreign exchange. This seems to have appalled him, for he turned his back on it, toward the stage where he fancied some of his talent might lie as a comedian. He tried for the part of Blanchenet in Henry Warnery's «Le Peuple Vaudois», but (his friends say mercifully) he was turned down. It was in 1905 that Ernest set out for Paris and the Sorbonne to write a thesis for a scientific doctorate in mathematics. It never saw the light of day. All the time, music tugged at him.
Returning to Switzerland he was named mathematics professor in Lausanne and it was there that he met and married his first wife, Marguerite Jacottet, a teacher. The next year their daughter, Jacqueline, was born. Now married, Jacqueline has made her father grandfather to a fine boy.
By 1905 the urge for music was so strong that Ansermet traveled to Berlin to hear Nikisch conduct series of concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic. He was enthralled and decided, then and there, to return home and seek his fame as a conductor. He was then 26.
It was five years before he got his first job at his chosen profession, and exchanged his desk for the conductor's podium in front of the little orchestra at the Montreux Kursaal.
Bad. Then Good, Luck
The first world war brought him disaster, then a stroke of fortune. His little orchestra folded, but Prince Serge Diaghilev arrived in Switzerland as a refugee. Wanting a new musical director for the Russian Ballet, he chose Ansermet.
Today the bearded Swiss is known to orchestras and audiences alike as something of a martinet.
His concerts always begin on the dot, although one performance of the Russian Ballet began half-an-hour late because of his Swiss-born love of good cheese.
He was lunching with an old Swiss friend, Dr. Fred Blanchod, who tells the story. In an Italian restaurant, the conductor had told his friend he never ate before a performance. But, says Blanchod, the musician ate a great deal more than he did and it was not until Ansermet finished a large portion of gorgonzola that he suddenly pulled out his watch to find himself 30 minutes late. «We dashed out to a taxi» recounts Blanchod, «and when we got to the Opera House we found a very angry Diaghilev hopping about like a wasp in a bottle. The audience was restive, too, but the ballet went off all right». Ansermet admits that the memory of this lapse makes him blush to this day. Perhaps his present love of punctualitv dates from it.
In 1918, Ansermet founded the Orchestre de la Suisse Komande and has remained its permanent conductor. A specialist in Russian and French music and in the modern repertory, he has given first performances of many distinguished compositions by Ravel, Debussy, Ernest Bloch, Alban Berg, Honegger, Hindemith and Martinu, to name but some.
His first wife died in 1939 and three years later the maestro married Juliette Salvisberg, distinguished Swiss singer of Geneva, an attractive dark-haired woman some 30 years younger than he. «I met my husband when I gave a series of concerts with the orchestra over Geneva Radio», she recalls. «But when we married I gave up my singing. Being wife to a world-famous conductor, I find, takes up all my time».
Madame Ansermet was busy packing in their Geneva apartment when her husband's batons arrived from the store in the Rue de la Corratorie which makes them especially for him. Each is two feet long, of very light unvarnished wood, weighing only a few ounces. The handle is about two inches of smoothed cork, just large enough for the conductors fingertips.
White-haired but brimming with energy, Ernest Ansermet has been said by the critics to be one of the finest musicians and most sensitive interpreters that the symphonic field presents today. The force of his personality becomes apparent immediately as he strides, with springy steps, across the stage to the podium. After music, his great love now is philosophy, and his book, combining aspects of both, is eagerly awaited in Europe.
Mr. Ansermet will make his first appearance with the Boston Symphony, on this present visit, at Sanders Theatre Tuesday evening, and in Symphony Hall next Friday afternoon and Saturday evening. [...]"
L'enregistrement proposé sur cette page provient du concert donné le 14 décembre 1951:
publié dans le quotidien «The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)» du 9 décembre 1951 en page 93
extrait du programme publié dans le quotidien «The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)» du 14 décembre 1951 en page 44
À la fin de l'enregistrement les applaudissements furent malheureusement coupés, il en résulte une fin abrupte.
Le compte-rendu de Cyrus Durgin, publié dans «The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)» du 15 décembre 1951 en page 12:
"[...] French Pianist in U. S. Debut With Symphony; Ansermet Conducts
A striking, even spectacular, event of the music season was the United States debut yesterday afternoon of the French pianist Monique de la Bruchollerie. She was soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the Third Piano Concerto of Rachmaninoff. This concert, as that tonight will be, was conducted by Ernest Ansermet, the Swiss musician who has come to Boston as interim leader of the orchestra during the convalescence of Charles Munch. The program otherwise includes the «Hebrides» Overture of Mendelssohn, Faure's little «Pelleas and Melisande» Suite, and «La Mer», by Debussy.
Miss de la Bruchollerie is that rarity, a musicians' and the public's artist. She has a big keyboard technic which, presently, you more or less forget under the spell of her expressive playing. Speed, agility, the gift of the caressing phrase, a wide range of dynamic effects, and a «touch» capable of infinite colorations of tone all those attributes she has in full measure.
Not a bar was clouded, made rhythmically untidy or anything but-an exact statement of what it was supposed to be. Everything sang all the way. What is a good but not great concerto, with a fireworks finale intended to whoop up applause, was admirably set forth in every way. I had a feeling Mlle. de la Bruchollerie let Mr. Ansermet set the pace and general tore of the performance. Had she been in complete command. I suspect there would have been more tension and excitement.
At the end, there were cheers, applause and stamping for the small, blonde and attractive artist, who returned to bow at least four times. Unless Mlle. de la Bruchollerie is not back within six weeks to give a solo concert, someone will have been asleep at the switch. That is, providing she has no other commitments to prevent a return.
It was good to hear Mr. Ansermet again, for he had given us performances in the Winter of 1949 that still linger pleasantly in the memory. He is of the discreet-tempo-clarity-and-ordered-expression school, but he is not without fire. This was proved in his crescendant reading of «La Mer», a reading which avoided the undesirable extremes of juicy thickness of sound and a dry X-ray delineation of Debussy's mood pictures.
Mr. Ansermet has changed the seating of the orchestra a little, with violins massed on the audience's left, and, on the right, cellos at front, backed by violas and double-basses. (Mr. Monteux, on his visit, had temporarily restored the «classic» seating plan.)
Although it was with Debussy that Mr. Ansermet made his greatest effect, the Faure was a glowing texture of subtle colors, and Mendelssohn's nice old Overture was clothed in appropriate style, flexible rhythm and rich tone. [...]«
Voici donc...
Sergej Rachmaninow, Concerto pour piano et orchestre No 3 en ré mineur, Op. 30, Monique de La Bruchollerie, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ernest Ansermet, 14 décembre 1951, Symphony Hall, Boston
1. Allegro ma non tanto 14:20 (-> 14:20)
2. Intermezzo: Adagio 08:45 (-> 23:05)
3. Finale: Alla breve 11:39 (-> 34:44)
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1. Allegro ma non tanto 14:20 (-> 14:20)