Paul Dukas

Paul Abraham Dukas (1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best known work is the orchestral piece, L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works. Among these are an opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard), a symphony, two substantial works for solo piano, and a ballet, La Péri.

At a time when French musicians were divided into conservative and progressive factions, Dukas adhered to neither but retained the admiration of both. His compositions were influenced by composers including Beethoven, Berlioz, Franck, d'Indy and Debussy.

In tandem with his composing career, Dukas worked as a music critic, contributing regular reviews to at least five French journals. Later in his life he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and the École Normale de Musique; his pupils included Maurice Duruflé, Olivier Messiaen and Joaquín Rodrigo.

Life and career[link]

Early years[link]

Dukas was born in Paris, the second son in a Jewish family of three children.^[1][2] His father, Jules Dukas, was a banker, and his mother, Eugénie, was a capable pianist.^[2][3] When Dukas was five years old, his mother died giving birth to her third child, Marguerite-Lucie.^[2] Dukas took piano lessons, but showed no unusual musical talent until he was 14 when he began to compose while recovering from an illness.^[2] He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the end of 1881, aged 16, and studied piano with Georges Mathias, harmony with Théodore Dubois and composition with Ernest Guiraud.^[4] Among his fellow students was Claude Debussy, with whom Dukas formed a close friendship.^[1] Two early overtures survive from this period, Goetz de Berlichingen (1883) and Le Roi Lear (1883). The manuscript of the latter was rediscovered in the 1990s and the work was performed for the first time in 1995.^[2]

Dukas won several prizes, including the second place in the Conservatoire's most prestigious award, the Prix de Rome, for his cantata Velléda in 1888.^[4] Disappointed at his failure to win the top prize, he left the Conservatoire in 1889.^[5] After compulsory military service he began a dual career as a composer and a music critic.^[4]

1890s[link]

Dukas's career as a critic began in 1892 with a review of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden in London.^[2] His review was published in La Revue Hebdomadaire; he later wrote also for Minerva, La Chronique des Arts, Gazette des Beaux-Arts and Le Courrier Musical.^[4] His Parisian debut as composer was a performance of his overture Polyeucte, written in 1891 and premiered by Charles Lamoureux and his Orchestre Lamoureux in January 1892. Based on a tragedy by Corneille, the work, like many French works of the period, shows the influence of Wagner,^[1] but is coherent and displays some individuality.^[4]

Although Dukas wrote a fair amount of music, he was a perfectionist and destroyed many of his pieces out of dissatisfaction with them.^[3] Only a few of his compositions remain. After Polyeucte, he began writing an opera in 1892. He wrote his own libretto, Horn et Riemenhild, but he composed only one act, "realising too late that the work's developments were more literary than musical".^[6]

The Symphony in C major was composed in 1895–96, when Dukas was in his early 30s. It is dedicated to Paul Vidal, and had its first performance in January 1896, under the direction of the dedicatee.^[4] In a study of Dukas published towards the end of the composer's life, Irving Schwerké wrote, "The work … is an opulent expression of modernism in classical form. Its ideational luxuriance, nobility of utterance and architectural solidity mark it as one of the most conspicuous achievements of contemporaneous writing, and magnificently refute the generally prevalent notion that no French composer has ever produced a great symphony."^[4] Like Franck's only symphony, Dukas's is in three movements rather than the conventional four. Schwerké wrote of it:

Expressed in an individual and spontaneous idiom, the Symphony in C gives free play to the author's creative spirit and to his fund of exalted emotion. The high-spirited, impetuous first movement, Allegro non troppo vivace is intensely rhythmic. Its logical structure, strong thematic material, polyphonic richness and virile instrumentation combine to create an exhilarating effect of life and pageant color. The second movement, Andante, in sharp contrast to the first, reveals the perfect finish of the composer's style and the ineffable charm of his melody. The robust last movement, Allegro spiritoso, so verdant in instrumentation, brings the symphony to a vigorous close.^[4]

The work received a mixed reception at its first performance. Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht, later known as a conductor, was a member of the orchestra at the premiere, and wrote, "the work which nowadays seems to us so lucid aroused not only the protestations of the public, but also those of the musicians of the orchestra."^[7] The symphony was better received when the Lamoureux Orchestra revived it in 1902.^[7]

The symphony was followed by another orchestral work, by far the best known of Dukas's compositions, his scherzo for orchestra, L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) (1897), a short piece (lasting for between 10 and 12 minutes in performance)^[8] based on Goethe's poem "Der Zauberlehrling".^[1] During Dukas's lifetime The Musical Quarterly commented that the world fame of the work not only overshadowed all other compositions by Dukas, but also eclipsed Goethe's original poem.^[4] The popularity of the piece became a matter of irritation to Dukas.^[5] In 2011, the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians observed, "The popularity of L'apprenti sorcier and the exhilarating film version of it in Disney's Fantasia possibly hindered a fuller understanding of Dukas, as that single work is far better known than its composer."^[2]

20th century works[link]

Costume design for Dukas's La Péri

In the decade after L'apprenti sorcier, Dukas completed two complex and technically demanding large-scale works for solo piano: the Piano Sonata (1901), dedicated to Saint-Saëns, and Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau (1902).^[2] In Dukas's piano works critics have discerned the influence of Beethoven, or, "Beethoven as he was interpreted to the French mind by César Franck".^[9] There are also two smaller works for piano solo. The Sonata, described by the critic Edward Lockspeiser as "huge and somewhat recondite",^[10] did not enter the mainstream repertoire, but it has been more recently championed by such pianists as Marc-André Hamelin and Margaret Fingerhut.^[11][12] Lockspeiser describes the Rameau Variations as more developed and assured ... Dukas infuses the conventional form with a new and powerful spirit."^[10]

In 1899 Dukas turned once again to operatic composition. His second attempt, L'arbre de science, was abandoned, incomplete, but in the same year he began work on his one completed opera, Ariane et Barbe-bleue (Ariadne and Bluebeard). The work is a setting of a libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck.^[13] The author had intended the libretto to be set by Grieg but in 1899 he offered it to Dukas.^[14] Dukas worked on it for seven years and it was produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1907.^[2] The opera has often been compared to Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande which was first performed while Dukas was writing Ariane et Barbe-bleue. Not only are both works settings of Maeterlinck, but there are musical similarities; Dukas even quotes from the Debussy work in his score.^[13] Although it won considerable praise, its success was overshadowed by the Paris premiere of Richard Strauss's sensational opera Salome at much the same time.^[2] None the less, within a short time of its premiere, Dukas's opera was produced in Vienna, where it aroused much interest in Schoenberg's circle, and in Frankfurt, Milan and New York.^[2] It did not maintain a regular place in the repertory, despite the advocacy of Arturo Toscanini, who conducted it in New York three years in succession,^[15] and Sir Thomas Beecham, who pronounced it "one of the finest lyrical dramas of our time,"^[16] and staged it at Covent Garden in 1937.^[17] Interest in it revived in the 1990s, with productions in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet, 1990) and Hamburg (Staatsoper, 1997),^[2] and at the Opéra Bastille in Paris in 2007.^[18]

Dukas's last major work was the sumptuous oriental ballet La Péri (1912). Described by the composer as a "poème dansé" it depicts a young Persian prince who travels to the ends of the Earth in a quest to find the lotus flower of immortality, coming across its guardian, the Péri (fairy).^[19] Because of the very quiet opening pages of the ballet score, the composer added a brief "Fanfare pour précéder La Peri" which gave the typically noisy audiences of the day time to settle in their seats before the work proper began. La Péri was written for the Russian-French dancer Natalia Trouhanova, who starred in the first performance at the Châtelet in 1912. Diaghilev planned a production with his Ballets Russes but the production did not take place; the company's choreographer Fokine staged L'apprenti sorcier as a ballet in 1916.^[2]

In 1916, Dukas married Suzanne Pereyra, who was of Portuguese descent. They had one child, a daughter Adrienne-Thérèse, born in December 1919.^[2]

Later years[link]

Paul Dukas and students of his composition class at the Paris Conservatoire, 1929. Olivier Messiaen is on the extreme right; Maurice Duruflé stands next to him

In the last years of his life, Dukas became well known as a teacher of composition. When Charles-Marie Widor retired as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire in 1927, Dukas was appointed in his place.^[4] He also taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. His many students included Jehan Alain, Elsa Barraine, Francis Chagrin, Carlos Chávez, Maurice Duruflé, Georges Hugon, Jean Langlais, Olivier Messiaen, Manuel Ponce, Joaquín Rodrigo, David Van Vactor and Xian Xinghai.^[1][2][20] As a teacher he was conservative but always encouraging of talent, telling one student, "It's obvious that you really love music. Always remember that it should be written from the heart and not with the head."^[19] He said his method of teaching was "to help young musicians to express themselves in accordance with their own natures. Music necessarily has to express something; it is also obliged to express somebody, namely, its composer."^[4] Grove observes that his wide knowledge of the history of European music, and his editorial work on Rameau, Scarlatti and Beethoven, gave him "particular authority in teaching historical styles".^[2]

After La Péri, Dukas completed no new large-scale compositions, although, as with his contemporary Jean Sibelius, there were frequent reports of major work in hand.^[14] After several years of silence, in 1920 he produced a tribute to his friend Debussy in the form of La plainte, au loin, du faune... for piano, which was followed by Amours, a setting of a sonnet by Pierre de Ronsard, for voice and piano, published in 1924 to mark the five hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth.^[3] Shortly before his death he had been working on a symphonic poem inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest,^[3] a play of which he had made a French translation in 1918 with an operatic version in mind.^[2]

In the last year of his life Dukas was elected to membership of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.^[14] Though adhering to neither the progressive or conservative factions among French musicians of the era, Dukas had the friendship and respect of both.^[5] In 1920, Vincent d'Indy published a study of Dukas's music;^[2] Debussy remained a life-long friend, though feeling that Dukas's music was not French enough;^[14] Saint-Saëns worked with Dukas to complete an unfinished opera by Guiraud, and they were both engaged in the rediscovery and editing of the works of Rameau;^[4] Fauré dedicated his Second Piano Quintet to Dukas in 1921.^[21]

Dukas died in Paris in 1935, aged 69. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in the columbarium at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.^[22]

List of works[link]

Published by the composer[link]

• Polyeucte, overture for orchestra (1891)
• Symphony in C (1895–96)
• L'apprenti sorcier ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), for orchestra (1897)
• Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1899–1900)
• Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau, for piano (c.1899–1902)
• Ariane et Barbe-bleue, opera (1899–1907)
• Villanelle, for horn and piano (1906)
• Prélude élégiaque sur le nom de Haydn, for piano (1909)
• Vocalise-étude (alla gitana), for voice and piano (1909)
• La Péri, ballet (poème dansé) (1911; later supplemented with Fanfare pour précéder La Péri (1912))
• La plainte, au loin, du faune..., for piano (1920)
• Amours, sonnet for voice and piano (1924)
• Allegro, for piano (1925)
• Modéré, for piano (?) (1933; published posthumously in 1936)

Early unpublished works[link]

• Air de Clytemnestre, for voice and small orchestra (1882)
• Goetz de Berlichingen, overture for orchestra (1883)
• Le roi Lear, for orchestra (1883)
• Chanson de Barberine, for soprano and orchestra (1884)
• La fête des Myrthes, for choir and orchestra (1884)
• L'ondine et le pêcheur, for soprano and orchestra (1884)
• Endymion, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1885)
• Introduction au poème "Les Caresses", for piano (1885)
• La vision de Saül, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1886)
• La fleur, for choir and orchestra (1887)
• Fugue (1888)
• Hymne au soleil, for choir and orchestra (1888)
• Vélléda, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1888)
• Sémélé, cantata for three solo voices and orchestra (1889)

Destroyed and projected works[link]

• Horn et Riemenhild, opera (1892)
• L'arbre de science, opera (1899)
• Le fil de parque, symphonic poem (c.1908)
• Le nouveau monde, opera (c.1908–1910)
• Le sang de Méduse, ballet (1912)
• Symphony No. 2 (after 1912)
• Violin Sonata (after 1912)
• La tempête, opera (c.1918)
• Variations choréographiques, ballet (1930)
• An untitled orchestral work for Boston Symphonic Orchestra (1932)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Jefferson, Alan (1979). Sir Thomas Beecham – A Centenary Tribute. London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-354-04305-X|0-354-04305-X]]. 
• Jones, J. Barrie (1909). Gabriel Fauré – A Life in Letters. London: B. T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-5468-7. 
• Lockspeiser, Edward (1957). "Paul Dukas". In Bacharach, A. L. (ed.). The Music Masters. Harmondsworth: Pelican Books. OCLC 655768838. 
• Walsh, Stephen (1997). "Paul Dukas". In Holden, Amanda (ed.). The Penguin Opera Guide. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051385-X. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Dukas

• Free scores at the Mutopia Project
• Free scores by Paul Dukas at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Paul Dukas in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)

Paul Abraham (Pál Ábrahám) (2 November 1892 in Apatin, Austria-Hungary (today Serbia) – 6 May 1960 in Hamburg) was a composer of operettas.

Abraham studied at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest from 1910 to 1916. He studied cello with Adolf Schiffer and composition with Viktor Herzfeld.

Like many other composers of operettas, Paul Abraham started with works of a serious nature. During the decade following his studies he wrote,among other things, sacred music, string quartets and a concerto for violoncello. When he was appointed conductor at the Budapest Operetta Theatre in 1927 he found his way to this more popular art form which was more suited to his talent.

His first operetta, Der Gatte des Fräuleins, was written in 1928. With his third, Viktoria und ihr Husar (1930), he already achieved a resounding success. Through this work, and the next two operettas from 1931 and 1933 Die Blume von Hawaii and Ball im Savoy he became renowned worldwide. He also wrote numerous film scores.

The events of 1933 forced the artist to abandon his domicile in Berlin and leave Germany. Via Vienna and Paris he moved to Cuba where he earned a modest living as a pianist and later emigrated to New York City. After a mental breakdown he was committed to a hospital in February 1946. In May 1956 he returned to live in Hamburg, Germany, where he died four years later.

Works[link]

• Zenebona (together with other composers) Operette in 3 acts, 2 March 1928, Budapest. Libretto: Lakatos László/Bródy István
• Az utolsó Verebély lány (also known as Az elsö Verebély lány or Der Gatte des Fräuleins) 13 October 1928 Libretto: Harmath Imre-Drégely Gábor
• Szeretem a felségem (Es geschehen noch Wunder) Magyar Színház 15 June 1929, Libretto: Birabeau André-Dolley Georges (after: Stella Adorján)
• Viktoria und ihr Husar, Operette, 3 acts and prologue. 21 February 1930 Budapest, Operettentheater. Libretto: Földes, Imre / Harmath, Imre, (German: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda)
• Die Blume von Hawaii, Operette 3 acts, 24 July 1931 Leipzig, Neues Theater. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda, after Imre Földes
• Ball im Savoy, Operette 3 acts and prologue. 23 December 1932 Berlin, Großes Schauspielhaus. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda. English: Ball at The Savoy, 8 September 1933 London, Drury Lane Theatre
• Märchen im Grand-Hotel, Lustspieloperette 3 acts 29 March 1934 Vienna, Theater an der Wien. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda
• Viki 26 January 1935 Magyar Színház, Libretto:Harmath Imre-Adorján Bónyi
• Történnek még csodák 20 April 1935 Magyar Színház, Libretto: Halász Imre-Békeffi István
• Dschainah, das Mädchen aus dem Tanzhaus, Operette 3 Acts. 21 December 1935 Vienna, Theater an der Wien. Libretto: Alfred Grünwald and Fritz Löhner-Beda
• 3:1 a szerelem javára 18 December 1936 Király Színház, Libretto: Harmath Imre-Kellér Dezső-Szilágyi László
• Roxy und ihr Wunderteam Musikalischer Fußballschwank, 25 March 1937 Vienna, Theater an der Wien, Libretto: Hans Weigel and Alfred Grünwald^[1]
• Julia Operette in 2 parts and a Nachspiel, 23 December 1937 Városi Színház Budapest, Libretto: Harmath Imre-Földes Imre
• A Fehér hattyu (The White Swan), 1938
• Zwei glückliche Herzen Libretto: Robert Gilbert and Armin L. Robinson. Premiere date unknown
• Tambourin Musical in 2 parts (unperformed) Libretto: Alfred Grünwald

References[link]

1. ^ Angela Eder, essay on this Football Operetta (German)

• Daniel Hirschel "Paul Abraham" in Operette unterm Hakenkreuz, Wolfgang Schaller (ed), Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-35-2
• Lamb, Andrew. "Abraham, Paul." in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 21 August 2008 (Subscription required)

External links[link]

• Biography (answers.com)
• Biography (German)
• Paul Abraham biographical homepage (German) (English)
• Chronology (German)
• Paul Abraham at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Abraham, film by János Darvas

Victor de Sabata (April 10, 1892 – December 11, 1967) was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century,^[1] especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.^[2][3] He is also acclaimed for his interpretations of orchestral music. Like his near contemporary Wilhelm Furtwängler, de Sabata regarded composition as more important than conducting but achieved more lasting recognition for his conducting than his compositions. De Sabata has been praised by various authors and critics as a rival to Toscanini for the title of greatest Italian conductor of the twentieth century,^[4] and even as "perhaps the greatest conductor in the world".^[5]

Early life[link]

De Sabata was born in the city of Trieste, at the time part of Austria-Hungary, but now in Italy. His Roman Catholic father, Amedeo de Sabata, was a professional singing teacher and chorus master, and his mother, Rosita Tedeschi, a talented amateur musician, was Jewish.^[6][7] De Sabata began playing the piano at the age of four, and composed a gavotte for that instrument at the age of six.^[8] He composed his first work for orchestra at the age of twelve.^[9] His formal musical studies began after his family moved to Milan around 1900. In Milan, de Sabata studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, excelling at piano, violin, theory, composition and conducting, and graduating cum laude in composition, piano and violin. He would remain a virtuoso pianist and violinist up until the end of his life.^[10] In 1911 he performed in an orchestra under the baton of Arturo Toscanini who influenced him to become a conductor.^[11] De Sabata's first opera, Il macigno, was produced at the opera house of La Scala on March 31, 1917 to a mixed reception.^[9][12] It was frequently performed during the next few years.^[11]

Conducting career[link]

1918–1929[link]

In 1918 de Sabata was appointed conductor of the Monte Carlo Opera, performing a wide variety of late-19th century and contemporary works. In 1925, he conducted the world premiere of L'enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel. Ravel said that de Sabata was a conductor "the like of which I have never before encountered"^[13][14] and wrote him a note the next day saying that "You have given me one of the most complete joys of my career".^[15] Ravel also claimed that, within twelve hours of receiving the score to L'enfant, the conductor had memorized it.^[16] In 1921, while still conducting opera at Monte Carlo, de Sabata began his career as a symphonic conductor with the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1927 he made his U.S. debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, substituting for Fritz Reiner in the first eight concerts of the year.^[17] He did the same in 1928.^[18]

1929–1945[link]

De Sabata conducted the orchestra of La Scala in concert starting in the 1921–1922 season,^[19] and conducted opera there from 1929. He became the principal conductor in 1930 in succession to Toscanini.^[20] Soon after taking up the post, he resigned because of a disagreement with the orchestra over the poor reception of his composition A Thousand and One Nights.^[21][22] Toscanini wrote him a letter in order to persuade him to return, saying that his absence was "damaging to you and the theater".^[21] De Sabata did return to La Scala, and continued in the post for over 20 years. However, he did not reply to Toscanini, and the two conductors remained estranged until the 1950s.^[22]

During the 1930s, de Sabata conducted widely in Italy and Central Europe. In 1933 he made his first commercial recordings with the Orchestra of the Italian Broadcasting Authority in Turin, including his own composition Juventus.^{[citation needed]} According to Benito Mussolini's son Romano, de Sabata was "a personal friend" of the Italian dictator, and gave "several concerts" at the leader's Villa Torlonia home.^[23] De Sabata's friendship with Mussolini became another factor distancing him from his former mentor Toscanini.^[24]

In 1936, he appeared with the Vienna State Opera.^[11] In 1939, he became only the second conductor from outside the German-speaking world to conduct at Bayreuth when he led Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde (Toscanini had been the first, in 1930 and 1931).^[25] Among the audience at Bayreuth was the young Sergiu Celibidache who hid in the lavatory overnight in order to surreptitiously attend rehearsals.^[15] That same year he made celebrated recordings of Brahms, Wagner and Richard Strauss with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He also forged a friendship with the young Herbert von Karajan.^[26] It is unclear why de Sabata was allowed to work in Germany by the Nazi regime despite his part-Jewish background.

In the closing stages of the war, de Sabata helped Karajan relocate his family to Italy.^[27]

1945–1953[link]

After World War II, de Sabata's career expanded internationally. He was a frequent guest conductor in London, New York and other American cities. In 1946 he recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the Decca recording company. In 1947 he switched labels to HMV, recording with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. These sessions included the premiere recording of Debussy's Jeux. He would go on to make more recordings with the same orchestra in 1948.^{[citation needed]} In 1950 he was temporarily detained at Ellis Island along with several other Europeans under the newly-passed McCarran Act (the reason was his work in Italy during Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime).^[28] In March 1950 and March 1951 de Sabata conducted the New York Philharmonic in a series of concerts in Carnegie Hall, many of which were preserved from radio transcriptions to form some of the most valuable items in his recorded legacy.^{[citation needed]}

De Sabata's base remained La Scala, Milan, and he had the opportunity to work with two upwardly-mobile sopranos: Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. In August 1953 he collaborated with Callas in his only commercial opera recording: Puccini's Tosca for HMV (also featuring Giuseppe Di Stefano and Tito Gobbi along with the La Scala orchestra and chorus). This production is widely regarded as one of the greatest opera recordings of all time.^{[29] [30]} One critic has written that De Sabata's success in this Tosca "remains so decisive that had he never recorded another note, his fame would still be assured".^[31]

Heart attack and retirement[link]

The Tosca recording was planned to be only the first of a series of recordings in which HMV would set down much of de Sabata's operatic repertoire. However, soon after the sessions he suffered a heart attack so severe that it prompted him to stop performing regularly in public. His decision to stop conducting has also been attributed to "disillusionment".^[32] His scheduled December 1953 La Scala performance of Alessandro Scarlatti's Mitridate Eupatore with Callas was replaced at short notice by an acclaimed Cherubini Médée with Leonard Bernstein.^[33] He resigned his conducting post at La Scala and was succeeded by his assistant Carlo Maria Giulini. Between 1953 and 1957 he held the administrative position of "Artistic Director" at La Scala. This period was notable for a reconciliation with Toscanini (with whom he had had a cool relationship for twenty years) during a La Scala production of Spontini's La vestale in 1954.^[34]

De Sabata conducted only twice more, once in a studio recording of Verdi's Requiem from June 1954 for HMV, and for the last time at Arturo Toscanini's memorial service (conducting the funeral march from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony at La Scala opera house followed by Verdi's Requiem in Milan Cathedral ^[35]) in 1957. The last decade of his life was devoted to composition, but with few results. Although Walter Legge offered him an opportunity to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1964 and suggested that he write a completion to Puccini's opera Turandot, neither of these things occurred.^[32] He enjoyed solving mathematical problems in his retirement.^[36] De Sabata died of heart disease in Santa Margherita Ligure, Liguria, in 1967. At his memorial service, the Orchestra of La Scala performed without a conductor as a mark of respect.^{[citation needed]}

The "Award Victor de Sabata" is named after de Sabata. A prize for young musicians sponsored by the province of Genoa and the region of Liguria, the competition takes place in Santa Margherita.^[37]

Conducting style[link]

De Sabata's conducting style combined the fiery temperament, iron control and technical precision of Toscanini with greater spontaneity and attention to orchestral color.^[38] He was exceptionally demanding of his players: according to one musician: "Those eyes and ears missed nothing ... the players had been made to work harder than ever before and they knew that, without having been asked to play alone, they had been individually assessed".^[39] On the podium he "seemed to be dancing everything from a tarantella to a sabre dance".^[40] Norman Lebrecht describes him as "a musician whose mild manners turned to raging fury whenever he took stick in hand".^[41] One critic used the phrase "lull and stun" to summarize his technique.^[42]

A violinist in the London Philharmonic Orchestra compared de Sabata with Sir Thomas Beecham, saying that while Beecham made the orchestra "red hot", de Sabata made it white hot.^[15] Another player described de Sabata's appearance when conducting as "a cross between Julius Caesar and Satan".^[39] Double-bass player Robert Meyer, who has played under many leading conductors including Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer, Giulini, Walter, Koussevitzky and Stokowski,^[43] describes de Sabata as "undoubtedly the finest conductor I have ever encountered".^[36] He conducted rehearsals, as well as concerts, from memory.^[44]

A musician who played under both Toscanini and De Sabata at La Scala compared them, saying,

Conductor Riccardo Chailly reports that De Sabata would have the strings sing along with the trombone glissandi at the climax of Ravel's Boléro, and that Chailly himself asks orchestras to do the same thing.^[46]

Criticism[link]

Toscanini did not approve of De Sabata's conducting style or of many of his interpretations: he considered the younger man's gestures to be too flamboyant.^[21] Puccini wrote in a letter dating from 1920 that "although [De Sabata] is an excellent musician of the other school – that is, the modern school – he can't, and does not know how to, conduct my music."^[47]

Anecdotes of musical abilities[link]

There are several extraordinary anecdotes of Victor de Sabata's musical abilities. After de Sabata was shown the score for the first time of Elgar's Enigma Variations, the next day he conducted a rehearsal of the work from memory and pointed out several errors in the orchestral parts which no-one, including Elgar himself, had noticed previously.^[48] During a rehearsal of Respighi's Pines of Rome in London, de Sabata "demonstrated the bowing and fingering of the high cello part in the first movement by playing it—without even a glance at the part. The pianist asked for advice about the solo cadenza, which de Sabata also played by heart. In the rehearsal interval, he asked the flicorni for the final movement to play their brass fanfares. They did. 'What are you playing?' he asked. 'It is an octave higher.' 'Can't be done, Maestro.' ... The Maestro borrowed one of their instruments and blew the correct notes in the right octave." ^[49] (this anecdote is all the more impressive when one knows that the flicorno (saxhorn) is an instrument usually associated with brass bands and very rarely used in a symphony orchestra). "A visitor [to La Scala] rehearsing Tristan asked Victor de Sabata to take the baton while he tested the sound from the centre of the auditorium. Needless to say, the sound he heard was totally different from the one he produced. De Sabata, without uttering a word, asserted his dominance of the orchestra just by standing there".^[50] When Herbert von Karajan was making his own recording of Tosca in 1962, he would often ask his producer John Culshaw to play selections from the De Sabata/Callas recording to him. Culshaw reports that "One exceptionally tricky passage for the conductor is the entry of Tosca in Act 3, where Puccini's tempo directions can best be described as elastic. Karajan listened to De Sabata several times over during that passage and then said, 'No, he's right but I can't do that. That's his secret.'" ^[51]

Selected discography[link]

See also Victor de Sabata discography

The recordings that de Sabata made in the studio are, with some exceptions, considered less gripping than the best of his work in the concert-hall and opera-house. (This may be related to the fact that he is said to have hated making recordings).^[39] Fortunately there are now several unauthorized "live" recordings that demonstrate how exciting de Sabata could be on the podium (although the sound quality can be problematic). This contrast comes through in the two different versions of Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and Verdi's Requiem listed below.^{[citation needed]}

• Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, live performance with the New York Philharmonic, New York, 1950 (currently available on Urania and Tahra: Urania is superior)
• Beethoven, Eighth Symphony, live performance with the New York Philharmonic, New York, 1951 (currently available on Istituto Discografico Italiano)
• Brahms, Fourth Symphony, studio recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Grammophon 1939 (currently available on Pearl)
• Debussy, Jeux, studio recording with the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, HMV, 1947. The premiere recording of this work. (currently available on Pristine Audio and Testament)
• Debussy, La mer, studio recording with the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, HMV 1948 (currently available on Testament)
• Puccini, Tosca, studio recording with Callas, HMV 1953. De Sabata's and Callas's most famous recording. (currently available on EMI and Naxos Records)
• Respighi, Feste Romane, studio recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Grammophon, 1939 (currently available on Pearl)

This recording was described as "quite simply, sensational, definitive...The piece blazes with colour" in Gramophone magazine.^[52]

• Respighi, Fountains of Rome, studio recording with the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, HMV, 1947 (currently available on Testament)
• Respighi, Pines of Rome, live performance with the New York Philharmonic, New York, 1950 (currently available on Urania)
• Schumann, Piano Concerto, live performance with Claudio Arrau and the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, New York, 1951
• Sibelius, First Symphony, live performance with the New York Philharmonic, New York, 1950 (currently available on Urania and Nuova Era)
• Richard Strauss, Death and Transfiguration, studio recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Grammophon 1939 (currently available on Pearl)
• Richard Strauss, Death and Transfiguration, live performance with the Vienna Philharmonic, Salzburg, 1953 (currently available on IDI and Nuova Era)
• Verdi, Falstaff, live performance with Tebaldi and Stabile, La Scala, Milan, 1951 (currently available on Music and Arts, and Urania)
  • "[o]ne of the most remarkable performances of anything by Verdi ever captured on a disc." De Sabata "creates a performance of electric immediacy with an extraordinary attention to the score's detail and architecture." ^[53]
• Verdi, Macbeth, live performance with Callas, La Scala, Milan, 1952 (currently available on EMI)
  • Callas and de Sabata "bring an almost supernatural tension to Lady Macbeth's disintegration." "Despite the poor recorded sound, this comes close to dramatic perfection."^[54]
  • "Victor De Sabata's inspired baton makes this performance a gem. Unfortunately, while De Sabata and most of the principals are perfectly fine, there is a severe stature gap in the title role. Mascherini is simply not adequate either to his colleagues or to Verdi's demands. Consequently, for much of the performance, Callas interprets alone. But her brilliant collaboration with De Sabata pays rich dividends."^[55]
• Verdi, Requiem, live performance with Tebaldi, La Scala, Milan, 1951 (currently available on Urania)
  • "A total view of the work can be felt, also a keen ear for relevant detail... Here is the only representation of Renata Tebaldi's fervent, soaring soprano in music that ideally suited her, a poised 'huic ergo', finely floated 'sed signifer', electrifying, as is De Sabata, in the Libera me... All in all, this version takes a very high place in the discography of this work."^[56]
• Verdi, Requiem, studio recording with Schwarzkopf, HMV 1954 (currently available on EMI)
  • Speeds are "positively grotesque... All are far below Verdi's metronome marks with disastrous results on the work's structure."^[56]
• Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, live performance with Gertrude Grob-Prandl and Max Lorenz, La Scala, Milan, 1951 (currently available on Archipel)

"[a] staggering performance in spite of its cuts, and the primitiveness of the recording". The Prelude to Act Three "is one of the most powerful interpretations of this heart-breaking music on record".^[57]

• Wagner, miscellaneous operatic excerpts, live performance with Eileen Farrell and the New York Philharmonic, New York, 1951 (currently available on Urania)

Media[link]

Death and Transfiguration (VPO live performance) noicon Live in concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, de Sabata takes a brainstorming approach to this exciting passage from Richard Strauss's Death and Transfiguration Death and Transfiguration (BPO studio recording) noicon In the studio recording with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, de Sabata takes a more sober approach that generates less excitement Beethoven Fifth Symphony noicon This excerpt from a live performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is intensely dramatic Beethoven Eighth Symphony noicon This excerpt from a live performance of Beethoven's Eighth Symphony demonstrates de Sabata's ability to build a climax through control of dynamics, accents, weight and tempo

Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Compositions[link]

De Sabata's compositions are written in a late-romantic style with similarities to Respighi and, especially, Richard Strauss (one early commentator went so far as to call de Sabata the older composer's "adoptive son").^[58] They were quite successful in the 1920s, being performed by conductors such as Toscanini and Walter Damrosch, but are little-known today, although Lorin Maazel has them in his repertoire.^[10] One reason may be that de Sabata did relatively little to perform and publicize his own works, preferring that his music should succeed or fail on its own merits. Critical opinion on the merits of his compositions has long been divided. For example, a 1926 Time Magazine review described his Gethsemani as "shallow, unoriginal music for which even the philanthropic genius of a Toscanini could not achieve distinction",^[59] while a critic for International Record Review, writing in the early 2000s, said that the same work "contains some of the loveliest orchestral sounds I have heard in years".^[60]

Published compositions[link]

• Il macigno; 2 atti di Alberto Colantuoni ("The Rock", opera in 2 acts, 1917).^[61] Revised as Driada in 1935.^[62]
• Melodia per Violino (1918) ^[63]
• Juventus: poema sinfonico ("Juventus: symphonic poem", 1919).^[64]
• Lisistrata (opera, after Aristophanes, 1920).^[10]
• La notte di Plàton: quadro sinfonico per orchestra ("The night of Plato: symphonic sketch for orchestra", 1923).^[65]
• Gethsemani, poema contemplativo per orchestra. ("Gethsemane, contemplative poem for orchestra", 1925).^[66]
• Mille e una notte: fiaba coreografica in 7 quadri ("1001 nights: choreographic fairy tale in 7 scenes", ballet, 1931).^[67]
• Incidental music for Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 1934.

Recordings of de Sabata's compositions[link]

• Juventus, studio recording with the Turin Orchestra of the Italian Broadcasting Authority conducted by the composer, Naxos, 1933
• La notte di Plàton, Gethsemani, Juventus, studio recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aldo Ceccato, Hyperion, 2001
• Piano works, studio recording, Alessandro Marangoni, piano; Bottega Discantica, 2007
• Mille e una notte, studio recording with the Gewandhausorcheser Leipzig conducted by Riccardo Chailly, Decca, 2012

Family connections[link]

De Sabata's daughter Eliana (a film screenwriter ^[68]) is married to conductor Aldo Ceccato, who was also de Sabata's pupil.^[69] His granddaughter Isabella de Sabata is married to conductor John Eliot Gardiner.^[70] De Sabata's grandson Cristiano Ceccato, son of Eliana, is a former student of CAD pioneer John Frazer and worked for architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid.^{[citation needed]}

Quotes[link]

• "I have in my mind a million notes, and every one which is not perfect makes me mad".^[41]
• "Conducting is a beastly profession".^[71]

Spelling of name[link]

The capitalizations Victor de Sabata and Victor De Sabata are both found, and the first name is often given in the Italian form Vittorio, especially in Italy. However, examples of the conductor's autograph signature clearly show that he spelt his name Victor de Sabata with a lower-case "d",^[72][73] and contemporary playbills indicate that he used the first name Victor, even when performing in Italy.^[74]

Notable premieres[link]

In concert[link]

• Maurice Ravel, L'enfant et les sortilèges, Monte Carlo, March 21, 1925^{[citation needed]}

On record[link]

• Claude Debussy, Jeux, Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, HMV, 1947^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Badal, James (1996). Recording the Classics: maestros, music, and technology. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-542-X. 
• Boyden, Matthew (2002). The Rough Guide to Opera. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-749-9. 
• Lebrecht, Norman (2001). The Maestro Myth: Great Conductors in Pursuit of Power (revised ed.). New York: Citadel. ISBN 0-8065-2088-4. 
• Osborne, Richard (2000). Herbert Von Karajan: A Life in Music. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-425-2. 
• Ravel, Maurice; Arbie Orenstein (2003). A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-43078-2. http://books.google.com/?id=lFtn3egpF8sC. 

Further reading[link]

• Celli, Teodoro (1978) (in Italian). L'arte di Victor De Sabata. Turin, Italy: Edizioni Rai. OCLC 5416791. 

External links[link]

• AMG AllMusic entry
• Available recordings of de Sabata conducting, from arkivmusic.com
• Available recordings of de Sabata's compositions, from arkivmusic.com
• Biography from Naxos.com
• Brief obituary in Time Magazine (subscription access)
• CD Review, containing some interesting background information
• "Victor de Sabata, conductor", Remiscences by Robert Meyer
• "Victor de Sabata, his conducting style" by Robert Meyer
• "Victor de Sabata and the ladies" by Robert Meyer
• "Victor de Sabata and the critics" by Robert Meyer

Jeremy Filsell (born April 10, 1964) is an English pianist, organist, and composer.^[1]

Biography[link]

Having played piano and organ from a young age, he was a Limpus prize winner for the FRCO examination, which he took when he was 19, and Silver Medallist of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He studied music at Oxford University, where he was Organ Scholar at Keble College. During this time, he studied organ with Nicolas Kynaston and Daniel Roth. He went on to study piano with David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music and Martin Hughes at the University of Surrey. He won second prize in the 1993 St Albans International Organ Competition.

He has particular interest in English piano music and French organ music. He plays in a piano trio with Oliver Lewis, violin, and Neil Heyde, cello, and a piano duo with Francis Pott.

Piano[link]

He has performed as a piano soloist around the world, and recorded in solo and concerto repertoire for Radio 3. He has been a repetiteur for John Eliot Gardiner, Vernon Handley and Sir Charles Groves. From 1989 to 1991 he was pianist of the European Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has recorded little-known piano music by Eugene Goossens^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Herbert Howells, Carl Johann Eschmann, and Bernard Stevens, and the piano and organ sonatas of Julius Reubke.

Organ[link]

He performed the complete organ works of Marcel Dupré in London in 1998, over nine weekly recitals at St Peter's, Eaton Square.^[2] He recorded the same works over a two week period in September of the same year, on 12 CDs.^[3][4] He completed a Ph.D. thesis on contextual, analytical and aesthetic issues in the music of Marcel Dupré, at Birmingham Conservatoire/University of Central England.^[5]

He has made original transcriptions for organ of orchestral works (such as Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice) and transcribed the improvisations of Pierre Cochereau as recorded at Notre-Dame de Paris.^[6] These are published by Editions Chantraine, Belgium.

He has made a complete recording of the six Organ Symphonies of Louis Vierne on the 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in St Ouen Rouen, and the organ music of Arthur Wills and Francis Pott, amongst many others.^[7]

Academic and professional posts[link]

Until 2008 he was Lecturer in Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, Visiting Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music,^[8] taught at Eton College and was a countertenor Lay Clerk in the choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Previously he was formerly Assistant Organist at Ely Cathedral, Director of Music at St Luke's, Chelsea, Assistant Director of Music St Peter's, Eaton Square, both in London. He has taught masterclasses in performance and interpretation on the Henry Wood and Oundle International Summer Schools, Eton Choral Courses, and in the U.S. at Yale University and Utah State University.

From 2008 - 2009, Filsell was Principal Organist of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. He then directed the music at Old St Paul's Episcopal Church, Baltimore.^[9]

After Easter 2010, he became Artist-in-Residence at Washington National Cathedral.

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• http://www.jeremyfilsell.com/ - personal website

Yvonne Lefébure (29 June 1898 - 23 January 1986) was a French pianist.

Born in Ermont, she studied with Alfred Cortot at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in piano and numerous other subjects. She soon appeared with the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux and the Orchestre des Concerts Colonne and in recital. She performed at the first Prades Festival in 1950. She taught at the École Normale de Musique, Paris Conservatoire and Conservatoire Européen, and gave masterclasses at her own festival in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Among her pupils were Samson François, Dinu Lipatti, Evelyne Crochet, Avi Schönfeld and Imogen Cooper.

Bibliography[link]

Carbou, Yvette, La leçon de musique d’Yvonne Lefébure, 1995 (with discography)