program notes Tailleferre: Concertino for Harp and Orchestra “The world is divided into two aesthetic styles: French and German,” the American composer Ned Rorem once declared. “German art is known for being profoundly superficial and French art for being superficially profound.” He added mischievously: “I am French. If you disagree with my analysis, then you are German.” In the aftermath of the gruesome First World War—well before Rorem made his observation—a small group of likeminded young composers emerged in 1920s Paris who seemed to illustrate this division. A critic dubbed them “Les Six” (“The Six”), an allusion to the nickname “The Five” that had been in vogue in the 19th century for a circle of composers based in Saint Petersburg who helped define Russian classical music. Movements were all the rage at the time—especially in the visual arts— and the members of Les Six were bright, provocative, and naughtily iconoclastic figures who bonded over a desire to open up new spaces by dismantling the reverence applied to German tradition. In its place, they celebrated values of frivolity and spontaneous play. They mocked academic seriousness, taking cues from the iconoclastic humor of Erik Satie. Satie himself recognized the gifts of Germaine Tailleferre and became an important early champion. From the start, she had struggled with P10
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her father’s opposition to a musical career—even though her talent was obvious early on, when she won prizes as a piano prodigy. The sole woman among Les Six, Tailleferre was only in her 20s when the group became known but outlived all of her colleagues. Moreover, she did not sympathize with the group’s disdain for Debussy and Ravel. In fact, Tailleferre had studied with Ravel and developed a close friendship with him. She continued composing throughout her long life and died in 1983, having reached the age of 91. Her creative output ranges widely, from solo and chamber pieces to operas and many film scores. The Concertino for Harp and Orchestra dates from 1926-27, when Tailleferre was living in the United States with her husband Ralph Barton, New Yorker cartoonist and caricaturist, to whom she dedicated the score. They had married very soon after meeting, though the relationship proved shortlived and ended in divorce. (Barton, pining over his previous wife—who later married the playwright Eugene O’Neill— would commit suicide in 1931.) While she was working on the Concertino, Tailleferre and Barton became something of a power couple in New York: Tailleferre’s fame at the time actually eclipsed that of her husband. Serge Koussevitzky led the Boston Symphony in the premiere, with Marcel Grandjany as the harpist. The Concertino’s first movement shows Tailleferre’s links to the Neoclassical aesthetic of Igor Stravinsky but also her characteristic humor, casting the
