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Un commentaire de Louis KAUFMAN sur la critique de son enregistrement de l'Opus 8 de Giuseppe Torelli...

La critique de la revue The Gramophone à la parution de la première édition de l'Opus 8 de Giuseppe Torelli dans l'interprétation avec Louis KAUFMAN ayant été assez bizarre, assez négative (cahier de juillet 1955 en pages 58 et 59), il est très intéressant - savoureux... - de lire le commentaire de Louis Kaufman, faisant usage de son droit de réponse et paru quelques mois plus tard dans la rubrique "Correspondence" de la revue The Gramophone en pages 206 et 207 du cahier d'octobre 1955, car - à côté du "déculotage propre et en ordre" du critique en question... - elle contient beaucoup de très intéressants détails:

"[...]
CORRESPONDENCE
The Editor does not necessarily agree with any views expressed in letters printed. Address: The Editor, THE GRAMOPHONE, The Glade, Green Latte, Stanmore, Middlesex.

Torelli "Concerti Grossi, Op. 8"

Since you have kindly offered to open your columns to further comment on the Oiseau-Lyre recording of the twelve concertos of Torelli's Opus VIII, as director of the Oiseau-Lyre Ensemble for this recording and as soloist (jointly in the first six concertos with M. Georges Alès) I would like to reply in detail to some of the more obvious mis-statements, errors and misconceptions that appeared in Denis Stevens' review of these two LP discs in your July issue.

In a charming note that Torelli prepared to accompany the 1709 edition, which we used for this recording, he states that he does not expect great wealth or fame from his Opus VIII, but only hopes for a courteous reception. I would like to help obtain such a reception for his work as well as for our recording. I have been interested on Giuseppe Torelli since I fast played and recorded some of his music in 1951, and have included the remarkable 9th concerto of this series in concerts which I have played in Brazil and Argentina in 1952, and in the United States and France in 1953. I have had the privilege of direeting the Goldsborough Orchestra of London and appearing as soloist (jointly in the first six concertos with Mr. Manuel Horwitz) in the radio première of this entire series for the B.B.C. Third Programme in January of 1954. This long experience with Torelli's music might be considered as a fair vantage point for my opinions.

First, in regard to the performance of the Oiseau-Lyre Ensemble: Mrs. Dyer has pointed out in her letter which appeared in your August issue that this group consists of excellent French musicians who have played together for many years. I would like to add that they have great experience in playing eighteenth century music and I consider their playing to be spirited, elegant and of unusually fine tonal quality. It is rather fantastic that your critic should describe their tonal quality as "sour".

M. Gerlin is an exceptional harpsichord virtuoso and eminent musician, who is also professor of the Naples Conservatory. His artistic realisation of the figured bass of the Torelli Opus VIII and his performance deserve respectful attention. To dismiss his realisation and playing as an "unpleasant buzz" is not only untrue but impertinent. Perhaps this "buzz" only exists in the phonographic equipment of your reviewer, or could it only be in his imagination?

M. Alès and myself had many rehearsals and were in complete accord in all ensemble passages and in regard to matters of ornamentation. There are exceptions to every rule - and even your critic must be aware that not every trill in baroque music begins with the top note - although this is generally the case (contrary to the remarks that your reviewer made that we were in disagreement on such matters).

Another misconception of your critic is the meaning of the term "organo". When I first studied the original 1725 edition of Vivaldi's Opus VIII "Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione", which I obtained from the Royal Conservatory Library in Brussels in 1949, I noticed that Vivaldi had only one bass part, which was titled "organo". The eame year, I presented a microfilm of this edition to Maestro Gian-Francesco Malipiero and visited him at Asolo to discuss the work and specifically the role of the continuo in regard to the tem "organo". Maestro Malipiero informed me that this term referred to a general part or "organum" which was played by the available accompanying bass instruments in the Italian concertos of the eighteenth century. This single "organo" part, in the music of Vivaldi and Torelli was to be played by the following group of instruments: usually cembalo (harpsichord), violoncello, violine (double-bass) or chittarone, arcileuto, theorbo, and even, if one was available, occasionally by an organ. This opinion of Maestro Malipiero was later confirmed by my friends M. Paul Collaer of Brussels and M. Roger Desormière of Paris, when I played concertos of this period under their experienced direction.

Incidentally, the greater part of all the Vivaldi concertos published by the Instituto Antonio Vivaldi under Maestro Malipiero's direction, print the continuo "organo" parts for cembalo, violoncello and double bass.

According to the late Dr. Felix Winternitz, the curator of the collection of baroque instruments of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Maestro Malipiero, and my friend M. Marc Pincherle (who has done much research on such masters as Corelli, Vivaldi, Torelli and Leclair) the harpsichord was the generally accepted continuo instrument of the eighteenth century. There are occasions when a small baroque organ may well be used in performinge eighteenth century continuo parts, but to suggest that it should be obligatory is a rather bizarre concept of your critic.

In spite of the list of painters which your critic names as having painted lutes in their canvases; I should merely like to state that any painting, regardless of the merits of the artist of any period, cannot be a safe or an exact guide to the instrumentation of Torelli's Opus VIII. The composer has listed on the title-pages of this work the instruments that he wishes to be employed. These are: Solo Violins I and II, Violins I and II of the "rinforzo" (tutti), Violas (for seven concertos: 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 11 - he states "beneplacito" (if you have them) and for five concertos: 3, 5, 6, 7 and 12 "obligato" (obligatory), Organo and Violone (double bass) or Arcileuto (archlute). Since good double-bass players were even rarer in the eighteenth century than they are today, he suggests a replacement. He does not request both bsss instruments.

Mr. Stevens has seemed to confuse the lute ("mandora") with the arch-lute ("arcileuto") which was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the chittarone and theorbo, to provide the thoroughbass in baroque music. Dr. Winternitz stated that the archlute was displaced by the harpsichord as early as the seventeenth century, and in the later part of the eighteenth century by the pianoforte, which had been invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori as early as 1708 (according to Italian authorities). This instrument (the arch-lute) is plainly illustrated in a Bulletin of May 1954 issued by the Metropolitan Museum, and had two sets of strings, one called melody-strings, stopped against the fingerboard and the other consisted of strings attached to a higher peg-box. For your critic to have confused this instrument wich a lute is almost the equivalent of substituting a violin for a violoncello in a Mozart score.

As to the value of this music, which your reviewer has stated to be "not great music"; it seems difficult to me to exaggerate the historical and musical importance of this group of twelve concertos. All ranking musicologists, including Dr. Manfred Bukofzer and Marc Pincherle, agree that they are, in fact, the first true solo concertos. Torelli even felt it necessary to state in his preface to the 1709 edition that when he has indicated the sign SOLO - he means that the first violinist of the concertino (small solo group of one or two violins, harpsichord and violoncello) plays without any other person doubling his efforts, and then to avoid major confusion, he must join the rinforzo (tutti). Torelli concludes: "This is truly my intention and live happily". The highest praise that can be paid to the musical value of this work is the fact that Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi accepted and used many of Torelli's ideas and inventions, as well as the form of the solo concerto which he created. His music also had a great influence on Albinoni and Manfredini. The musical value of these concertos, alone, entitles them to intelligent appreciation and assessment and they do not need the added historic weight of "innovation" to justify their present-day performance and recording.

Mr. Stevens has taken to task, in other reviews of your july issue, the enlightened policy of record companies who provide music-lovers, students, and musicians, with complete recordings of "dozens of sonatas and concertos". He seems to find this extremely tedious, and in such a case, perhaps be should permit other writers, who are more interested in knowing the full extent of a composer's quality and scope, to replace his efforts as critic for such works. Complete sets of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, etc., have always found an interested public, as music publishers have long known. As a record collector, myself, I have prized for many years the opportunity of having complete works available; and I shall always be profoundly grateful to the English Society that made possible the splendid recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano, performed by Fritz Kreisler and Franz Rupp.

Far from trying to conceal anything in regard to Torelli's indications for performance, we have not "suppressed" his indication for the 6th concerto, as your critic stated; but have instead clearly revealed the character of the first movement of this concerto as the profoundly moving Pastorale, which gives this Opus VIII of Torelli its title: "Concerti Grossi con Una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale". The concerto begins with four bars of mysterious import that are marked "Grave", the Pastorale follows immediately in 12/8 rhythm and is a true "sicilienne" whose tempo is known to all serious musicians. This inspired movement was written for the birth of the Christ-Child and should not, in my opinion be played in the same tempo as the "Vivace" that heads the final movement, and these has the obvious spirit of a joyous halleluiah. The Opus VIII of Torelli appeared the year following his death, due to the care of his brother Felice, a famous stage-designer. There are many slight errors in the first edition which are obvious to students of eighteenth century music - and I consider the "vivace" indication, after the four bars of Grave, one of these printer's mistakes. To play the noble and beautiful music of the Pastorale in the same brisk tempo of the Finale, would result in a betrayal of the composer's intent and instead of creating the spiritual mood that Torelli achieved would result in a literal "Beckmesser" reading that would approximate the mood of a Highland fling.

There are too many inaccuracies in Mr. Stevens' review to list them all, but I would like to mention in closing that he remarked that our recording suffers from "over-employment of double basses". Only ono double bass was used in this recording.

It is to be hoped that your critic's pretensions to infallibility on matters of style, tempo, and musicology rest on a sounder basis than his unfortunate tendency of dubbing "ignorant" any person whose opinions do not coincide with his own.
Aix-les-Bains, France.  Louis KAUFMAN
.
[...]"

Publiée dans la même rubrique "Correspondence" du cahier d'octobre 1955, en page 207, une autre réaction à propos de cette critique bizarre...

"[...]
I feel that I must write to protest against the notice, in the July issue of THE GRAMOPHONE, of Louis Kaufman's recording of Torelli's Twelwe Concerti Grossi. As a layman, I cannot begin to question the reviewer's musical expertise - nor, for the matter of that, his knowledge of Italian. Even a layman, however, can find it curious that he should criticise the tempo, when it is a matter of common knowledge that among the greatest conductors one frequently finds the widest differences of opinion about the speed at which any particular work should be taken.

When one considers Mr. Kaufman's own exquisite playing (not only on these records but in whatever he attempts), the pioneer work he has done in connection with early Italian music, and his reputation as a person of profound musical knowledge, it is difficult to understand your rewiewer's whole-hearted attack on this recording - an attack which can unly be described as deliberately savage and partisan. In our household, at any rate, these records have been played and played again with very great pleasure, and with deep admiration both for Torelli's score and for the beautiful interpretation by Mr. Kaufman and the Ensemble Orchestral de l'Oiseau-Lyre.
Rudgwick, Sussex.    SHEILA BUSH
.
[...]"

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