Louise Heritte-Viardot

[gentile]

A CD with the three piano quartets of the French composer Loise Heritte-Viardot (1841-1918 ) has been recently released by the Ars label. She was the daughter of the well known singer Pauline Viardot-García and the niece of the even more famous María Malibran. Apparently she pursued also a singing career but frail health imposed a less agitated life dedicated to teaching and composition.
When I bought the CD I anticipated, at the very best, some pleasant pieces in the salon style of the age in France. However, to my surprise, it contained chamber music of the very first rank. The pieces are lively, full of ingenuity in the dialogue between instruments, and with plenty of tuneful and catchy themes. The quartet in D major, subtitled "Spanish" (the composer maternal grandparents were spanish), uses popular iberic rhytms but in a restrained manner, without falling into the purely folkloristic. The other two quartets (A major and D minor) are more weighty but never renouncing to the clarity and wit which is characteristic of the Paris Conservatory school (Saint-Säens, Fauré, Widor...)  by opposition of the darker and more "wagnerian" Schola Cantorum of the pupils of Cesar Franck.  Specially enchanting are the scherzos which reminded me of the marvelous examples in the piano quartets of Fauré and Saint-Säens. In fact, Heritte-Viardot is not far from these composers in style and quality.
Apparently, this is the first recording of works of Heritte-Viardot. She composed several chamber music pieces (including a cello sonata, published as Op.40, that surely will be worth to hear), "dramatic" symphonies and concertos. Several reference manuals list these titles but unfortunately the CD booklet tell us that all these works (except an opera and some songs) are lost. Let´s hope that some of the works (at least the published cello sonata) will eventually resurface and be recorded. For the moment, let's enjoy what we got.
I would greatly appreciate any further information about this composer and eventual recordings or locating of scores.

[Mark Thomas]

I've heard two of her three Piano Quartets on a radio broadcast and, like you, was tremendously impressed.  It's good news that all three are available on CD and so I guess that I'd better track down a copy now...

[TerraEpon]

She also made some interesting song arrangements of a few Chopin Mazurkas (as well as some nice 'normal' art songs). You can hear the former on a Hyperion CD with all of Chopin's songs (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=145494), and the later on a recital of French songs on Decca (http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=1538)

[Marcus]

Hello gentile,
Welcome to the forum. Like you, I purchased the Louise Heritte-Viardot chamber works from Records International (USA). I bought it "on spec", as I do with many unknowns, and was pleasantly surprised by the excellence of this composer. I had known of her mother, Pauline, but never knew of Louise.The booklet with the CD probably supplies more information, as limited as it is, about the composer, than anything else available. (and I am quoting parts of that for those who do not have the recording).There does not appear to be much written about her personal life, but there are a few books dealing with women composers which you can find in a good library, or buy from Amazon etc which may shed more light on the subject :
Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers,Historical Analogy of Music by Women (J.R.Briscoe),Women & Music (K.Pendle), Women Composers 2nd ed. (Dianne P.Jezic). I have the Pendle book, but there is nothing about Louise, except a one line entry, but plenty about her mother Pauline. Another book, quoted by Karen Pendle as listing Louise's works is "Women Composers- Music through the Ages"edited by Sylvia Glickman & Martha .F.Schleifer.
Like her mother Pauline, she rubbed shoulders with most of the important composers in Europe, and was highly regarded as a vocal teacher,& pianist, having taught in St.Petersburg,Frankfurt,Berlin & Heidelberg.
She wrote PianoTrio in C minor, 3 Piano Quartets, 4 String quartets, Piano pieces, a comic  Opera Lindoro (Weimar 1879), concertos,cantatas & symphonic works. Most of her works are lost, so there may not be much more appearing.Her brother, Paul Viardot (1857-1941)was a violinist, conductor & composer. He wrote 2 Violin Sonatas , a Piano Trio & other works. Both Louise & her brother wrote memoirs, which if you can locate, may answer alot of questions.
Sheet music of some music is available fro Di-Arezzo.UK
Cheers !
Marcus.

[gentile]

Thank you, friends, for information and support! I didn't know about the CDs of vocal music. And thanks, Marcus, for the extensive information. I further found that Cohen's International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (2nd. Edition) lists also a two-piano sonata and a second piano trio among her chamber works. Perhaps some of these works will be recovered and recorded, particularly the cello sonata. I refuse to believe that a published work that has been sold at the beginning of the XX century by the hundreds can vanish from the face of the earth. It must surely be preserved in some library. Let's hope so.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Do we know who published her cello sonata? It is certainly curious that a work published at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries seems to have disappeared. One would have expected copies to be lodged with the British Library and other national collections.

[Mark Thomas]

WorldCat and all the other major libraries with online catalogues have no record of it.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Do we know that it really was published? It doesn't sound like it to me.

[eschiss1]

At least according to Edition Silvertrust's entry on the 2nd piano quartet (http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/heritte-viardot-piano-qt2.htm), only the three piano quartets have survived.  I can only find two of them in score at libraries.

[edurban]

Thanks for the link, eschiss1.  There are pretty substantial soundbites, enough to give you a good sample of the music.  Very pretty, and certainly very Spanish sounding.  I haven't heard the other pieces, but this one strikes me as high-class salon music.  My attention wandered after a while, but maybe I just need more coffee...

Does anyone know under what circumstances the other music disappeared?

David

[gentile]

Do we know who published her cello sonata?

According to the International Encyclopedia of Women Composers the Cello Sonata was published in 1909 by Hofmeister. Much later than the piano quartets Op.9 (in 1883 by Boosey & Hawkes) and Op.11 (also in 1883 by Peters).

[Gareth Vaughan]

All three piano quartets are in the British Library and the Library of Congress. I wonder if the Cello sonata published by Hofmeister is in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. It's not in Munich - that I do know.

[JSK]

She does indeed have published memoirs/an autobiography in English. It does not really explain how to get her scores. Heritte-Viardot lived in several places throughout her life. Furthermore, the autobiography does not mention her son by name (apparently she had a miserable family life and it seems like her son may have ended up living with his father, I don't know), so I guess it's unlikely that he inherited many of her scores and if he did they'd be hard to track down. It's also hard to find much information elsewhere on the composer since her mention in books like the Grove Dictionary exists as part of the articles on her more famous mother, Pauline.

One of my professors has edited and published an edition of one of Heritte-Viardot's quartets. I don't think she has found a copy of the cello sonata score, though I'm not certain. She told me that she has had a miserable time trying to find Heritte-Viardot scores in general, and that when she copied the original scores which she has the scores were literally crumbling.

And the Chopin arrangements mentioned are in fact by Louise's mother, Pauline Viardot Garcia. She wrote a lot of songs I do not particularly like due to their lackluster piano accompaniments.