When soprano Maria Jette and organist Boris Kleiner performed Louis
Vierne's "Les Angelus" at the Oregon Bach Festival, I was struck by the
music of a composer who has been pretty much just a name for me before.
Jette, a champion of Vierne that she is, deferred to Denis Ruiz, whom she
calls the prophet of the half-forgotten French composer. She forwards the
following blood-curling information from Ruiz:
Vierne notes:
1906 disabling leg accident -- nearly lost ability to
play organ (pedals etc)
1909 discovered his wife was cheating with organbuilder Charles
Mutin, who frequented the household and whom Vierne thought
of as a friend (!)
1909 6-yr-old son Andre develops tuberculosis
1910-11 flooding under Notre-Dame cathedral causes serious
dampness problems and damage to the pipeorgan
1911 mother died agonizing death of kidney failure
1911 mentor Alexandre Guilmant dies!
1913 his 10-yr-old son Andre DIES of tuberculosis.
1915 he realizes the remainder of his eyesight is quickly
disappearing, and realizes he much desperately seek some
special treatment/surgery
around the same time, companion/singer Jeanne Montjovet decides
to leave him --- she was his companion, fellow-interpreter,
and even his inspiration in these recent years.
1916 He gets news that his brother Rene (also an organist)
has been killed in combat in the War WW1
Vierne is almost at point of a breakdown.
Vierne decides to leave for Switzerland on JULY 12th, to get
the eye surgery and cure.
1917 while resting up in Switzerland and getting eye treatments
before eventually turning to the surgery (and also to regain
some of his emotional health), he learns his own older son
Jacques has been killed in the War!
1918 Vierne gets the eye surgery, but it doesn't turn out
so well. He has now lost nearly all his vision!
He is just about in a state of emotional breakdown.
1920 APRIL 12: He has to return to Paris, he gets off the train,
but is utterly without any of his former status and
connections. He is a very much broken man, both financially
and in spirit.
He takes up residence in a hotel.
Life is resumed if only very slowly/gradually. The appetite for
living now seems to have abandonned Vierne ... his material existence
is terribly precarious and the whole adventure risked turning into
a catastrophe, were it not for destiny ... two windows opening onto
the same street, out of two different apartments, on springtime
afternoon. It is enough to change the entire course of a person's
life. Suffice to say that Vierne was rehearsing that day his Sonata
for violin and piano with violinist Yvonne Astruc, in the room he
occupied at the Lord-Byron Hotel in Paris. He abruptly interrupted
the rehearsal, surprised to hear the faint sound of music coming from
the apartment in the building across the street. A young woman whose
profile was blocked by the windowframe, was seated at her piano
working on a difficult passage from the *same* sonata. Amused at
first by the coincidence, then suddenly attentive, Vierne went out
onto the balcony, leaning on the rail; listening attentively in his
professorial manner (custom), he called/shouted over some
details/corrections, regarding how to play the passage. The young
woman in her turn also came out onto her own balcony. They exchange
a few words. And when she discovers that the blind man over there,
right before her, is in fact the *composer* of the piece she is
working on, she is struck with pity at the sight of the musician who
seems so pale and sorrowful-looking. She makes up her mind to help
get this professor back to his former stature, and with the agreement
of her mother, decides to get this blind man out of his wretched
fate. This young woman is Madeleine Richepin, and her mother. They
first go over, get to know Vierne better, and first help him with
his immediate household needs. Next, they work to get him a base of
students so that he at least immediately has a means of supporting
himself. They next track down (throughout Paris) as many of his
former pupils, putting them back in contact with their teacher,
letting them know he's back in town. They start organizing recitals,
concerts, and tours for him. And also, they look after getting
published any and all works he has composed in the meantime (between
1914 and 1920), which has remained unpublished.
By 1921, the Richepins had succeeded in enabling Vierne to move out
of the 'poor' Hotel and into a decent if modest apartment at 37 rue
St-Ferdinand. (photo may be on website).
He also got back his original, faithful servant/maid Mariette, from
before his departure! But, alas, his chamber-organ had been sold,
so the Richepins helped him find as a replacement a piano-pedalier.
Students (including Maurice Durufle!) reassembled seeking private
organ-playing or improvisation lessons. Paris in the 1920, however,
has been invaded by American Jazz and dance music, and it is no longer
Vierne's pre-war Paris (of the 1900's). Like Berlioz a century before
him, it seems it is not until he goes abroad that he discovers his
true worth.
In 1921-22 he tours the Rhein, Treves, Mayence, Wiesbaden, Spire,
Aix-la-Chapelle, Bonn, etc. He was very interested and moved (emu)
by his visits to the graves of Beethoven and Schumann. In speaking
of Schumann, he said to Bernard Zimmer (a French writer) who took
Vierne to the gravesites, that Schumann's sad fate came after so many
trials/hardships.
Later, in 1924, Joseph Bonnet (faithful pupil and friend) arranged
a recital tour of the British Isles for Vierne, mainly to help his
serious financial situation -- for which Vierne was eternally grateful.
But the big turn-of-events came in 1927 -- a huge tour of North
America, arranged for Vierne by the Richepins through the AGO
(American Guild of Organists), and other groups in the USA and Canada.
Vierne was widely touted as "the great blind organist" - which
admittedly emphasised the sensational over the musical, but it
nonetheless resulted in over 70,000 people having a chance to listen
to him play and improvise. Critical acclaim on this tour was
universally favorable.
Vierne returned to France with a much-restored spirit regarding such
recognition (not to mention also the earnings).
It's with this high-point of his later life, that he composed in 1929
this work, Les Angelus, I suppose not without a growing affection
for the youthful but maturing Madeleine Richepin, who performed the
premiere of the work with Vierne at organ, in the cathedral of
St-Sernin, in Toulouse.
Madeleine Richepin soon after (in 1931) married a medical doctor,
Lucien Mallet. The work was published that same year with the
dedication to Madeleine Richepin.
So, you see, this woman (with her mother initially) was responsible
perhaps single-handedly for saving the end of Vierne's career and
turning it around from what might have been poverty and anonymity.
It is Vierne taken from his lowest point, up to his great comeback,
in the twilight years of his life!
DR
Janos Gereben/SF
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