Presents
Pauline Viardot
Six Morceaux for Violin & Piano
Pauline Viardot (1821 1910) was a leading nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, teacher, and composer. Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García was born in Paris. Her father, Manuel, a tenor, was a singing teacher, composer and impresario and he trained her on the piano and also gave her singing lessons. She had wanted to become a professional concert pianist and had taken piano lessons from Franz Liszt and also composition lessons with Anton Reicha. But at her mother’s insistence, she became a singer. Most of her compositions were for voice, however, she did write many works for piano and a few works for violin and piano which were, as these Six Morceaux, composed for and dedicated to her son Paul, a concert violinist.
Her Six Morceaux date from 1867 and some scholars believe that she had heard Joachim Raff's Six Morceaux, composed some five years earlier, and which had achieved almost instant fame. In any event, like Raff, Viardot seems to have set herself a specific goal: To create archetypal examples of specific musical forms. In this case we have: The Romance, the Bohemienne-a kind of gypsy dance, the Berceuse--a lullaby, the Mazurka (a native Polish dance), the Vieille Chanson--an old folksong form and the Tarantella. Each little piece is elaborated with formal perfection that serves only the purpose of creating an perfect example.
Each of the six was sold by the original publisher separately rather than as a group. After several years we were able to collect all six and now are publishing them as a set for the first time. Played together they are the duration of a full length sonata but each of these lovely pieces could be played separately as a shorter recital work or an encore.
Please be aware that we have reprinted the first and only editions of these works, a few of which were faded. We have done our best to rectify this but in a few places the music is not as dark as we would have liked.
Parts: $24.95
