on chamber music ❧ 81
After the second series of fi ve concerts in 1945, other instrumentalists joined
us in various combinations, and a chamber orchestra composed of some of the
best players in New York was rehearsed by Sascha in New York and brought
to Dumbarton Oaks for the performances. The programs of the concerts in
which Sascha and I collaborated included all the Brandenburg Concertos and
all the Handel concerti grossi, fi ve of the Bach harpsichord concertos and all
the violin sonatas, Mozart sonatas, Mozart and Haydn trios, Mozart and Haydn
symphonies, and Mozart concertos for various instruments, including eight of
the piano concertos, which I played on a modern approximation of a piano of
Mozart’s time. Two of the concerts were rehearsed by Sascha and conducted
by Stravinsky, one of them including the fi rst performance of the Septet. In
1953, the appearance of my Scarlatti book was celebrated by a Scarlatti festival
of six concerts. All of these concerts received only one performance each, and
no way could ever be found to share them with a larger public than that com-
posed of the subscribers at Dumbarton Oaks. Most of the performances were
among the best with which I’ve ever been associated.
Jennie Tourel sang in seven of the concerts in which I participated, and I
will never forget her Scarlatti “Salve Regina” or the Mozart aria with obbligato
piano (K. 505). Jennie was one of the greatest artists with whom I have ever
worked. Her voice in its prime was good, perhaps not exceptional in itself, but
her intelligence was such that she could do anything with it. She had an infal-
lible sense of rhythm and an impeccable idea of musical taste. Her command
of coloratura was phenomenal for a mezzo-soprano, and she excelled in the
wit and bravura of Rossini. Perhaps she was at her very best in French and
Russian; she came relatively late but successfully to German. Much of the rep-
ertoire with which I was involved fell either into the vocal range of contralto or
that of soprano, but just because Jennie could negotiate anything with artistry,
we performed many works that did not always show off her voice to its best
advantage—for example, the songs and cantata of Haydn that we recorded
together, or the music chosen for the unpublished fi lm that we made together
in Carnegie Hall in 1953.
I am certain, however, that if Jennie had lived, she would eventually have
become reconciled to renouncing her well-merited claim to universality and
would have been able, in a restricted repertoire, to go on performing for years
and years with all her old artistry. When she turned to teaching, it was with all
the intelligence and perceptiveness with which she had made herself the dar-
ling of conductors and composers. When we were both giving master classes at
the Jerusalem Conservatory in 1971, I went to several of her coaching sessions,
mainly in German lieder. The beauty of Jennie’s devotion, the examples she
sang herself, and the glimpses of her ideals laid bare, moved me to tears.
Sascha and I had recorded all the Bach sonatas and some of the Mozart for
Columbia in 1945–46, and by 1950 we had recorded additional Mozart, the
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rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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