INDEX OF THE VOLUME
CLAUDE KNEPPER, Daniel Ollivier (1862-1941), petit-fils et filleul de Franz Liszt. Esquisse biographique
IDA ZICARI, La musica di Liszt interpretata dai coreografi
MARCO BEGHELLI, Un gesto di carità: Liszt per Casamicciola
CÉLINE CARENCO, L’orchestra au piano: Liszt et la transcription de la Symphonie Fantastique de Berlioz
AUTOGRAFI
Rossana Dalmonte, Dall’archivio dell’Istituto Liszt: Istantanee
Denis Herlin, Une lettre inédite de Claude Debussy
ABSTRACTS
The life of Daniel Ollivier begins with a tragic event: the death of his mother Blandine, the elder daughter of Franz Liszt, two months after his birth. He’s brought up and educated in Saint-Tropez by his grandfather Demosthènes Ollivier (1862-1877). There he meets his grandfather Franz Liszt (1864) and his grandmother Marie d’Agoult (1868). At her death (1876) he receives the bequest of her literary property but is still too young to publish anything. At the age of fifteen Daniel leaves St. Tropez for Paris, in order to complete his secondary studies (1877-1881). He meets there and in Bayreuth Franz Liszt (1878, 1884, 1886). After successful doctoral studies in law (1882-1889) he begins a career of business counsel. Between 1927 and 1941 (year of his death) Daniel publishes an important part of the papers and correspondence he inherited from his parents and grandparents: the end of the “Mémoires” of the Countess d’Agoult and nearly nine hundred letters. In the 1950s his widow bequeaths his papers to the French National Library.
IDA ZICARI, La musica di Liszt interpretata dai coreografi
The figure of Liszt has been studied from different points of view but his music and the use of it offers every day new ways of investigation. The present article aims at tracing a map of ballets based on Liszt’s works.
Liszt never composed music for choreographic ends but his catalogue with titles in dance forms and programme music give interesting material for creativity to choreographers and dancers. Isadora Duncan, George Balanchine and Frederick Ashton are some of the artists who were inspired by Liszt works. An unsuspected picture emerges from the recognition of Liszt in the world of the dance: Liszt’s music represents not only sound material in the conventional sense for the dancer but expression of formal thought which structures the choreography.
MARCO BEGHELLI, Un gesto di carità: Liszt per Casamicciola
A new little stone in the mosaic of Liszt’s life – or, better – in the complex essence of his sentiment of pity.
The count Angelo de Gubernatis – a philanthropist, a man of letters, an expert in Indian studies – asked several persons (eminent in different fields) to write “something” in remembrance of the victims of the terrible earthquake in Casamicciola, a little village on the island of Ischia, near Naples (1883).
The writings of politicians, poets, artists and nobles were collected in an Album, which was to be sold to raise money for the victims. Princess Wittgenstein contributed with a quotation from Dante’s Divina Commedia, but Liszt wrote for this occasion a short but memorable aphorism, reproduced here at the end of the article.
Liszt completed his transcription of Berlioz’s first symphony in September 1833. The present article aims at comparing the orchestra and piano scores, in order to show how the virtuoso managed to transcribe for the piano the most characteristic passages of the orchestra.
A brief analysis of some musical examples points out the difficulty of this enterprise: Liszt has to deal with instrumental gesture, rhythmical parameters and the great complexity of the melodic discourse. Finally, the article illustrates the way he further explores Berlioz’s musical conceptions, and the consequences for such method of transcription.
AUTOGRAFI
ROSSANA DALMONTE, Dall’archivio dell’Istituto Liszt: Istantanee
A new section is being opened in the “Quaderni dell’Istituto Liszt” in order to enlarge the scope of the collection.
Liszt and his relatives, friends and pupils still remain the main subjects of our research work, but from now other scholars will be invited to participate in the team with their specific competence, in order to illustrate original documents which till now have remained unknown. In focus will be not only music of the 19th but also novelties from the 20th century.
The first document to be illustrated is a short letter by Claude Debussy not included in the collection of his printed correspondence.
The letter itself is not connected with Liszt’s biography, but one must not forget that during his last stay in Rome in January 1886, Liszt met Debussy three times. As Alan Walker states, it was not a «fleeting encounter» but something which could have left a sign in the history of music. During the last of the three meetings, in fact, Liszt played his own Au bord d’une source, a piece not stylistically unaffecting for the later master of musical Impressionism.
To provide a commentary for this small jewel, and to put it in its correct historical context one of the most prominent expert of Debussy was invited to contribute to volume n. 7 of the “Quaderni”:
Denis Herlin is researcher of the CNRS and collaborator of the François-Rabelais University of Tours. He is managing editor of The complete works by Claude Debussy (34 volumes) and of the publications of the French Society for Musicology.
DENIS HERLIN, Une lettre inédite de Claude Debussy