A Poet and a Civil Servant

Donald Macleod attempts to unravel the complexities of Pauline Viardot's close friendship with the writer Ivan Turgenev, which lasted, albeit with a few breaks, until his death in 1883.

“When I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world,” an indicator, if ever there was one, of the inner steel of this week’s composer, 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot.

Born in 1821, Pauline Viardot possessed exceptional qualities. As one of the opera stars of her age, she was admired from Paris to St Petersburg as a sublime interpreter of Rossini, Bellini, Handel and Gluck. Beyond her incomparable voice, her twice-weekly artistic salons were a high point in Parisian cultural life. She knew, and was admired by Chopin, George Sand, Delacroix, Liszt, Fauré, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Saëns to name but a few. While having, according to Saint-Saens, an unnecessarily modest view of her talent, she was also an accomplished composer. A talented linguist with five languages at her command, her compositions include a substantial body of songs, one or two instrumental works and a series of highly appealing operettas.

Across the week, Donald Macleod will be immersing himself in the many facets of her extraordinary life. We’ll be hearing a range of Viardot’s compositions as well as some of the operatic roles she made famous. He’ll be examining her role in Parisian cultural circles, and her friendships with leading writers among them Charles Dickens, and in particular Ivan Turgenev, and composers such as Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Meyerbeer and Gounod, all of whom tailored roles specifically for her incredible voice.

Berçeuse-cosaque
Katherine Eberle, mezzo-soprano
Robin Guy, piano

Golden glow of the mountain peaks
Do not sing, my beauty, to me
Olena Tokar, soprano
Igor Gryshyn, piano

Rossini: Il barbiere di siviglia (Act 1, no 5)
Una voce poco fa
Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano
Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna,
Giuseppe Patanè, conductor

Le dernier sorcier (Act 1)
no 1 Par ici
no 2 Chanson de Lelio “Dans le bois frais et sombre”
no 3 Romance de la Reine “Ramasse cette rose”
Adriana Zabala, mezzo-soprano, Lelio
Eric Owens, bass-baritone, Krakamiche
Sarah Brailey, soprano, Verveine
Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano, the Queen
Liana Pailodze Harron, pianist
Myra Huang, piano
Manhattan Girls’ Chorus

12 songs of Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev
No 1 Tsvetok
5 poems of Lermontov & Turgenev:
No 1 Na zare
10 poems of Pushkin, Lermontov, Koltsov, Tyutchev and Fet
No 3 Ya lyubila yego
12 poems of Pushkin, Fet and Turgenev:
No 4 Polunochnyye obrazy
Ina Kancheva, soprano
Ludmil Angelov, piano

Bellini: La sonnambula, (Act 1)
“..In Elvezia non v’ha rosa, Fresca e cara al par d’Amina…..”
Care compagne, e voi, tenere amici!
Sovra il sen la man mi posa
Nathalie Dessay, soprano, Amina
Paul Gay, bass-baritone, Alessio
Sara Mingardo, contralto, Teresa
Chorus and Orchestra of Lyon Opera
Evelino Pidò, conductor