95154
VIERNE
12 PRELUDES · SOLITUDE · NOCTURNE
MŪZA RUBACKYTĖ
piano
The life of Louis Vierne (1870-1937) mixes triumph and tragedy in equal measure. Congenital cataracts rendered him functionally blind until the age of seven when an operation partially restored his sight, although his vision was to remain severely impaired all his life. His musical talent was fostered at the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris, which he attended from 1881 to 1890 and where in 1886 he impressed the visiting Cesar Franck. Franck encouraged Vierne’s organ studies and arranged for him to attend his classes at the Conservatoire, where he was organ professor, as an auditor (as well as giving him private composition lessons). Franck became his mentor and friend (possibly also a father-figure – Henri Vierne having died in 1886) and it was therefore a devastating blow when Franck died in October 1890, a few weeks after Vierne had enrolled at the Conservatoire to study with him on a formal basis. He considered giving up, a sentiment reinforced by his finding Franck’s successor Charles-Marie Widor uncongenial. However he soon established an equally strong relationship with Widor who provided similar assistance and support, making him his deputy at Sainte-Sulpice in 1892 and teaching him composition for nothing. Such was his talent that Vierne took over some of Widor’s teaching at the Conservatoire on an informal basis and was officially appointed as his assistant in 1894, being confirmed in this role for Widor’s successor, Alexandre Guilmant in 1896. His own reputation as an organist flourished and in 1900, recently married and with a young son, he was appointed to the prestigious post of organist at Notre-Dame (although unfortunately the salary was not commensurate with the honour). From this point, events of his life took a downward trajectory, punctuated by illness, setback and tragedy. In 1906 he suffered a career-threatening injury to his leg and the following year almost died of typhoid fever. Divorce in 1909 and the death of his mother two years later hit him hard at a time when he also received a severe professional setback: on Guilmant’s death, Vierne had reasonable expectations that, having acted as unpaid assistant for seventeen years, he would be appointed professor in his own right. However due to internal politics and personal rivalries within the 2
Conservatoire, he was passed over in favour of the sixty-seven year old Eugène Gigout, a snub which he felt keenly. The outbreak of war, as well as reducing him to poverty, brought personal loss with the deaths in action of one of his sons (the other had died in 1913) and his brother, and an onset of glaucoma required prolonged expensive and painful treatment in Switzerland. On his return to Paris in 1920, he found the organ of Notre-Dame in a terrible condition, “ filled with dust, dead bats and swallows and perishing with mildew and dry rot.” The cathedral authorities were unwilling to fund its repair so he undertook an arduous tour of America to raise money for its renovation only to see his efforts sabotaged by his opponents. When the organ was finally restored several years later, he had to fight hard to prevent it being done inadequately and on the cheap. And it was at the console of the restored instrument that Vierne’s life fittingly ended. On June 2nd 1937, he slowly and painfully climbed up to the organ tribune, accompanied by Maurice Duruflé, who was to assist him in what was to be his 1750th organ recital. After performing the opening piece, his Tripytque, he was about to begin the improvisation when he slumped forward, his foot depressing the E pedal which sounded a long mournful note through the cathedral as his life ebbed away. Although Vierne is primarily associated with the instrument for which he lived and at which he died, less than a third of his published music was in fact for organ. In addition to several works for orchestral forces, he also composed chamber music, a large number of songs, and several collections of pieces for piano, of which those included here date from the period of the First World War. He began work on the Douze Préludes in 1914, completing the first six while on holiday with Marthe Bracquemond and her family in the fateful month of August. Marthe, who had been his student for ten years and was to provide him with a refuge during the early years of the war, is the work’s dedicatee. Although each piece has an apparently descriptive title, these should not be taken as generic: Vierne made a distinction between “pure” and “pictorial” music, the purpose of the former, which he favoured, being “to give 3
voice to the movement of the soul”. Importing biographical elements into music is always dangerous but, aside from the obvious context of the looming conflict which surely influenced Pressentiment (Foreboding), the knowledge that in May 1915 Vierne’s relationship with the singer Jeanne Montjovet ended cannot fail to influence interpretation of the seventh, eleventh and final preludes completed around this time. Although each prelude is in a different key there is no reason to believe that he intended to create a complete cycle and after alternating minor and major in the first four preludes, the minor predominates thereafter in no obvious coherent sequential arrangement. Structurally simple with alternating and often strongly contrasting thematic material (other than the short tenth which is monothematic), the preludes are nevertheless emotionally complex (particularly the third and seventh). Vierne’s brother René, to whom he sent a copy of the score at the front, wrote to him of the reaction of his fellow soldiers to whom he played it: “Your music pleased them mightily. That’s because it is in sympathy with us in the sense that it says well what it wants to say without beating about the bush”. There is some confusion over the opus number: published in 1921 as Op.38 (a number shared by the song collection Spleens et Détresses) it is now usually allocated the otherwise absent Op.36. In late 1915 Vierne travelled to Switzerland to consult an eye specialist about his developing glaucoma and when in Geneva composed the third of the three Op.35 Nocturnes (which he dedicated to René). The Nocturnes are more conventionally impressionistic after the style of Debussy and their titles more immediately evocative of their content than the Préludes. The joyful lyricism of La lumière rayonnait des astres de la nuit, le rossignol chantait… (Light was beaming from the night stars, the nightingale was singing… ) banishes the grim reality of the war which was soon to intrude forcefully into his life. In November 1917 his eldest son Jaques was killed and on May 29th 1918 René received a direct hit from a shell which left no trace of his body. Louis had begun sketching Solitude before news had reached him, “writing ceaselessly as an apple tree produces apples “ and distilled his reaction 4
to the devastating loss of his beloved brother in these stark, anguished yet still controlled works. The epigraphs he supplied, while perhaps providing clues as to their interpretation also serve to distance them slightly from his personal sense of pain and loss: I: Le souvenir des disparus hante le solitaire (Remembrance of the departed haunts the lonely man); II: Ô douleur, invisible compagne, tu veilles inlassablement près de celui dont tu as mis l’âme en deuil et déchiré le cœur. (O pain, unseen companion, you keep tireless watch over him whose soul you’ve made to mourn, whose heart you’ve torn in pieces) III. Arrière, spectre sanglant, si tu n’es qu’une vaine image! (Begone, bloody ghost if you are nothing but an empty vision); IV. Troublés dans leur repos par la joie des vivants, les morts se lèvent et dansent aussi sous le clair de lune (Disturbed in their rest by the joy of the living, the dead rise up and they too dance in the moonlight). © Muza Rubackyté
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The Lithuanian-French concert pianist Mu¯za Rubackyte˙ was born in Lithuania and received her music education at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under such leading figures of the Russian piano school as Yakov Flier, Bela Davidovich and Mikhail Voskresensky. Winning the All-Union Competition in St.Petersburg placed her as one of the Soviet Union’s most outstanding pianists. M. Rubackyte˙ travelled across the country, performing during lunch-time breaks at steel mills and factories, appearing with orchestras and building an extensive concert repertoire of over 30 different recital programs and 40 major piano concertos. Numerous invitations from abroad remained unfulfilled due to the restrictions of the “iron curtain” and despite such accomplishments as, for example, the Grand-Prix of the International Liszt-Bartok Competition in Budapest in 1981. Following her move to Paris in the footsteps of the Lithuanian independence in 1991, Mu¯za Rubackyte˙ was awarded the first prize, Les Grands Maîtres Français, in the prestigious Paris International Piano Competition. Currently a resident of Paris and Geneva, she travels throughout the world. Her discography of over 20 recordings includes, amongst others, 24 Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovitch for Brilliant Classics, a complete recording of the three volumes of “Années de pèlerinage” by Liszt for Lyrinx, discs for Marco Polo, Naxos and Doron. This recording of L.Vierne was a part of Paris Opera project. A forthcoming CD at Brilliant Classics will present chamber music of this composer. In addition to her active concert career, Mu¯za Rubackyte˙ also dedicates her time to working with young pianists as a professor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She gives masterclasses at the summer academy G.Sebök in France, for M. Rostropovich foundation “Support to Lithuania’s Children” and for President Aliev’s foundation in Azerbaijan. Professor Rubackyte˙ has served on the juries of several international piano competitions and is Artistic Director of International Vilnius Piano Festival. www.muza.fr
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Recording: 11-13 June 2014, Fazioli Concert Hall, Sacile, Italy Recording, editing and mastering: HvF Audio Studio – Casarsa (PN) Sound engineer: Federico Furlanetto Piano: FAZIOLI concert grand, F278 2295 Piano technician: Job Wijnands Cover image: Painting of the portrait of MUZA Rubackyte by Igor Bitman - & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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