Donald Macleod considers the significance of Pauline Viardot's famous twice-weekly salons in the cultural life of Paris and her association with the British writer Charles Dickens.
“When I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world,” an indicator, if ever there was one, of the inner steel of this week’s composer, 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot.
Born in 1821, Pauline Viardot possessed exceptional qualities. As one of the opera stars of her age, she was admired from Paris to St Petersburg as a sublime interpreter of Rossini, Bellini, Handel and Gluck. Beyond her incomparable voice, her twice-weekly artistic salons were a high point in Parisian cultural life. She knew, and was admired by Chopin, George Sand, Delacroix, Liszt, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Saëns to name but a few. While having, according to Saint-Saëns, an unnecessarily modest view of her talent, she was also an accomplished composer. A talented linguist with five languages at her command, her compositions include a substantial body of songs, one or two instrumental works and a series of highly appealing operettas.
Across the week, Donald Macleod will be immersing himself in the many facets of her extraordinary life. We’ll be hearing a range of Viardot’s compositions as well as some of the operatic roles she made famous. He’ll be examining her role in Parisian cultural circles, and her friendships with leading writers among them Charles Dickens, and in particular Ivan Turgenev, and composers such as Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Meyerbeer and Gounod, all of whom tailored roles specifically for her incredible voice.
Fauré: Puisqu’ici-bas toutes âme
Janis Kelly, soprano
Lorna Anderson, soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde love duet (Act 2)
O sink herneider, Nacht der liebe
Vogt, tenor, Tristan
Camilla Nylund, soprano, Isolde
Bamburg Symphony
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Choeur bohemian
BBC Singers
Helen Neeves, solo soprano
Olivia Robinson, solo soprano
Grace Rossiter, Elizabeth Burgess, piano
Stephen Jeffes, triangle
Christopher Bowen, tambourine
Grace Rossiter, conductor
Brahms: Alto Rhapsody
Ann Hallenberg, contralto
Collegium Vocale Gent,
Orchestre des Champs-Élysées
Philip Herreweghe, director
Violin Sonatina in A Minor
Allegro finale
Reto Kuppel, violin
Wolfgang Manz, piano
Cendrillon (Act 1, Act 2 excerpts)
Nous sommes assailis par cette vile engeance
Si je n’y venai pas, donc le balaîrait
Je viens te rendre à l’espérance
C’est lui! Oh! Quel bonheur
Sandrine Piau, soprano, Marie (Cendrillon)
Susannah Waters, soprano, Maguelonne
Jean Rigby, mezzo-soprano, Armelinde
Jean-Luc Viala, tenor, Le Prince Charmant
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir
Nicholas Kok, conductor and pianist
Gluck, ed Berlioz: Orphée, (Act 1, sc 4)
Amour, viens rendre à mon âme
Anne Sofie Von Otter, mezzo-soprano, Orpheus
Lyon National Opera Orchestra
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
Producer: Johannah Smith Show less