Another airing for Debussy's Summer of 1912

Good news: our programme Debussy's Summer of 1912 is being aired again on July 18th, 12.15-1pm on BBC Radio 3. Do tune in then, and you can also listen online for the week following the broadcast via the BBC website

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

Read my blog post of 24th June 2008 for more details about the programme.

More news soon about the broadcast date for The Secret Lives of Mel Bonis and Louise Héritte-Viardot

Spring is here!

Wisteria Walk at Belle Serre

The Lily of the Valley is almost in flower, but not quite on time for May Day.

The other Mel B

Mel Bonis c 1905, the year her first piano quartet was published.

Mel Bonis in later life - she remained sitting down for the rest of her days, although there is a photo of her playing croquet in about 1920!

Mélanie Bonis around the time of her marriage

Rather less well-known in musical circles than the Spice Girls' Mel B, is Mélanie Bonis (1858-1937), a prolific French composer who composed over 300 works, and who enjoyed significant success in her lifetime. She changed her name to the more ambiguous Mel Bonis, realising that she was more likely to be taken seriously if people didn't know she was a woman.

I went to the annual gathering of Mel Bonis fans for the AGM of the Mel Bonis Association, held at the Paris home of her great grand-daughter, Christine Géliot. About eighty people came for an evening of news of performances and new editions of Mel Bonis's music, a concert of her music, dinner, and a 'boeuf' or informal jam session to play and sing yet more of her wonderful music.

I was there with Richard Bannerman, producer of my programme for BBC Radio 3 The Secret Lives of Mel Bonis and Louise Héritte-Viardot, to be broadcast in the autumn. We interviewed Christine Géliot, who has tirelessly collected original manuscripts of her great grand-mother's works, and who has written a biography of her life; also interviewed was pianist Laurent Martin, who champions not only Mel Bonis, but also other less well-known composers such as Onslow, Dubois, and Alkan.

Florence Launay is the lynchpin for my programme, having researched and written a great deal about women composers, and it was Florence who inspired me to investigate the music of French compositrices. I then realised that Mel Bonis and Louise Héritte-Viardot had so many things in common; self-taught, early marriages to men twice their age whom they didn't even know, ('If I can't have love, at least I shall have money,' wrote Mel Bonis before marrying a wealthy businessman), 300 works apiece, both excellent pianists, both supported by important publishers, both members of the Society for Composers (SCM), both friendly with figures such as Fauré and Saint-Saëns, and who both wrote wonderful piano quartets. It's these chamber music works that form the basis of my story about these two remarkable composers.

As luck would have it, the day after my visit to record the interviews on Mel Bonis, there was a concert just outside Paris of music by the Garcia -Viardot family, including songs by Louise Héritte-Viardot (1841-1918). See the pictures below. I'll post more about Louise and her extraordinary adventures soon!

Paris in the spring - I had a free day in the centre of Paris after my weekend steeped in Mel Bonis and Louise Héritte-Viardot. I was staying in Montmartre, just ten minutes walk from Sacré-Coeur. The weather was perfect, and I spent the entire day walking, towards the Louvre, through the Tuileries, along the river, and back up past Le Châtelet. Best way to see Paris.

At the Villa Turgenev in Bougival, Paris - a concert of songs by the Viardot - Garcia family, performed and introduced by Florence Launay, standing next to her student singers, all four of whom were about six foot four inches tall! They performed songs by Louise Héritte-Viardot, Pauline Viardot, (mother of Louise Héritte-Viardot), Paul Viardot (Louise's brother), Manuel Garcia (Louise's uncle), and Maria Malibran (celebrated mezzo and aunt of Louise).

Florence Launay, singer and author of a book about French women composers of the 19th century, with Christine Géliot, great grand-daughter of Mel Bonis, at Les Alluets le Roi.

On my walk around Paris, I went to 50 Rue de Douai, to the house of the Viardot family, where Pauline and Louis Viardot hosted concerts in their magnificent salon. Here, their eldest daughter, Louise Viardot performed, and often sight-read, new chamber music; she was an excellent pianist, performing not only her mother's works, but her own music, including her piano quartet in D minor on May 10th, 1877. Regular visitors to the Viardot salon evenings were Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, (all three great friends of Louise), Wieniawski, Saint-Saëns, Vieuxtemps, Corot, Flaubert, Turgenev, George Sand, to name just a few. She also knew Charles Dickens, Frederick Leighton, Rossini, Liszt, Franck, Lalo, and many other prominent artists of the day.

Unfortunately, I discovered from the author of a book on Pauline Viardot, whom I met at the Mel Bonis weekend (I think there's a core of supporters of women composers in France that go everywhere!), that this is not the original house at 50 Rue de Douai. Still, the house standing there now covers an enormous plot, suggesting that the Viardot's had a very grand place indeed.


The Viardots owned a summer villa at Bougival, Les Frênes, which is, as you can see, rather dilapidated. Not grand at all. Next to it, Turgenev (a very close friend of the Viardots) built his own villa, which is now a museum.

Villa Turgenev at Bougival, Paris

The museum is housed in the restored villa, and boasts a lovely square piano brought from Turgenev's villa next to the Viardot house in Baden-Baden. Unfortunately, it's tuned a tone flat, so one plucky soprano found herself singing a bottom F at one point.

Lowri's cello masterclass at Dartington 1-8 August

Once again, I shall be giving a cello masterclass at Dartington International Summer School and cellists of all standards are welcome to join the class. Last year, the range of ability spread from elementary to advanced music college student and professional levels. The atmosphere is supportive and creative, and sessions include technical workouts (Cellorobics) and performance with piano. Everyone can join in. For pictures from the classes of 2007 and 2008, see earlier posts. The dates are August 1-8 2009, Week 2 of the summer school. Bookings can be made via http://www.dartingtonsummerschool.co.uk/

Do come along!

Fractured French

Following on from faux amis, what better than Fractured French for a bit of 'entente cordiale'. Introduced thus - 'This discerning collection of mots, liberally interpreted by FS Pearson and indiscreetly illustrated by R Taylor, appeals to that sound English conviction that foreign languages only baffle us because they are spoken much too fast (after all, every foreigner understands English if it is uttered loudly enough)'.

The ones that make me chuckle the most are Tant pis, tant mieux, which translates as My aunt is much happier since she made a telephone call, and Mise en scène, or There are mice in the river.

Here are a few more mots from this lovely collection, with translations below.

Coup de grâce
C'est à dire
Mal de mer
Faux pas
A la carte
Pas du tout
J'y suis et j'y reste
Louis Cinq

Lawn mower, She's a honey, mother-in-law, father-in-law, on the wagon, father of twins, I'm Swiss and I'm spending the night, lost at sea.....

Oh, and I mustn't forget Femme de ménage: A Woman of my age....

Friend or faux?

When is a croche not a croche? When it's a quaver, of course. And as for being sensible, well, I thought I was playing sensibly!
It can be very confusing teaching and playing in France, as there are so many faux amis, or false friends, ready to trip you up. A crotchet to us anglais is une noire, a black or simply filled-in note, as opposed to une blanche, which is a minim. With me so far?

My favourite is la note sensible, which is not a note on good behaviour, but the leading note; ça veut dire the seventh note of the scale that leads up to the tonic - it's much more expressively named in French, for what is, of course, a very expressive note. Well, it can be if it's played sensibly.

My other fave fauxs, which often leave me conversationally stranded in the fossé (and while we're still in the ditch, an orchestra pit is une fosse d'orchestre, which puts the poor players in their place), are words such as notoriété, formidable, redoutable. I would have to be careful not to describe myself in my publicity blurb as the well-known, and nice but terrible cellist,
or even the notorious and formidable cellist, the redoubtable Lowri Blake. Pas terrible! Not great - oh dear, even that's a faux ami; I get terribly confused by terrible. Je suis terriblement confondue - le comble de la confusion....

Where was I? Oh yes, confused. Here are a few more faux amis to watch out for, which incessantly trip up the unguarded: incessement doesn't in fact mean incessantly, but imminently or very soon; un affluent is not a loaded person or something opulent, but a tributary. I rather like the expression for the rush hour; l'heure d'affluence. At least it doesn't seem so bad if you're stuck in an affluent traffic jam.

I particularly like le traiteur, who turns out to be a harmless caterer. If you are une
religieuse, yes, you are indeed religious; in fact, you're a nun.
So, with this conversation dissipée, possibly 'diverting' or 'entertaining', but equally 'dissipated', I will leave you sur pied having crawled out of my fossé, with one last faux ami, which turns out to have been anything but amicable. Un mariage blanc is not a white wedding, all bells and bliss, but a marriage of convenience, or unconsummated marriage.

Next post - Fractured French, coming soon.

Posted by
Lowri Blake, the notoriously well-known and terribly nice cellist.

Christmas commissions in Castres

François-Henri Labey

Pierre Caner

This year's Concert de Noël given by the massed choirs and orchestras of the Conservatoire de Musique et Danse du Tarn (CMDT) at the Théâtre Municipale in Castres was, as ever, a very grand (and very long...) affair. Particularly so, this year, as there was not just one, but two works specially commissioned for the event. The Director of Music, François-Henri Labey composed Suite d'Hanter Dro for bagpipes and wind orchestra. He appeared droning dramatically from the wings as soloist for his piece, dressed in full traditional bagpiper's regalia, and after the performance and much cheering and applauding French style, he gave us a second performance on the spot, before disappearing down the aisles, droning away into the gloom of the rear stalls. I later discovered from F-H L that his wife had made his kilt (pretty impressive pleating) and sporran - très authentique.

Sadly, they are moving further north in the new year, where François takes up a new post as director of the conservatoire at Alençon. His musicianship and lovely sense of humour will be greatly missed. I made my first forays into examining here in France alongside F-H L ; as jury chairman, he generously prompted me every time I failed to come up with a crucial verb or expression in French. I had expected to have to write reports on each candidate's performance, no mean feat in a foreign language - but no, I had to offer constructive criticism verbally to each musician, and discuss the pupils' progress with their professor as well 'sur le champ'. This on the spot analysis gets even tougher when the poor player has failed to come up to scratch; I think I was under scrutiny every bit as closely as they were... Still, F-H L steered me through my first efforts, and I'm finding a little more finesse at live feedback each time I examine here in the Tarn or at the Toulouse Conservatoire.

When we first met François, I was surprised to discover a Frenchman who's passionate about English late 19th/early 20th century music - Bantock, Parry, Bax, all those chaps. Not long after, he gave me a copy of the cello sonata by his grandfather, conductor and composer Marcel Labey, which I hope to perform one day soon. His grandmother was also a composer, whose music has been championed by Florence Launay (see posts of concerts last summer).

The other first performance was of Pierre Caner's (see local heroine post) Conte d'une Nuit, a delightful romp for choir and orchestra to round off the evening's proceedings. The Martin family on this occasion was represented by Philomena, singing in the choir. A fine, festive night.

Thank you to my cello pupil Emma Caner, for the above photos.