If his heading is any guide, Bert Bailey doesn't seem to realise that
Marcel Landowski died almost four years ago. In case it's of any interest,
here's my obituary of the time, published in The Independent.
Anyone acquainted with French cultural life will know that it
revolves around a few central characters, each satrap fiercely
defending his territory against those who do not share the faith.
The dominant figure in French music for the past several decades
has been Pierre Boulez, and composers who follow Boulez's hardline
modernism are usually brought in and looked after. Intermittently,
there is a grand debat which eddies through the French press
when an outsider, a composer who rejects serialist dogma, complains
that the bulk of the subsidy goes to the Bouleziens; then the
dust settles and the status quo is re-established.
Boulez, thanks to his early notoriety as a composer and his
excellence as a conductor as much as to his domestic dominance,
is more or less the only man most non-specialists will think of
when they consider modern French music. But there was, until a
week ago, someone else working to improve the lot of music in
France, someone whose enthusiasms were much more catholic than
the narrow passions of Boulez: Marcel Landowski. It was Landowski
who first suggested the establishment of the regional orchestras
which have done so much to improve musical life outside Paris,
Landowski who founded the Orchestre de Paris, Landowski who
reinvigorated the teaching of music in French schools by requiring
all students to take classes in music.
Marcel Landowski was born in Brittany, the son of the sculptor
Paul Landowski, and showed enough precocious musical talent to
merit piano lessons with Marguerite Long, one of France's most
eminent pianist-teachers. He then became a pupil at the Paris
Conservatoire, studying composition with Henri Busser and ecriture
with Noel Gallon; he also took lessons from the composer-conductor
Philippe Gaubert and conductor Charles Munch.
Landowski began to make an impact as a composer shortly before
the Second World War when, in Paris in 1937, he conducted the
premieres of his Les Sept Loups and Les Sorcieres, both for
female chorus and orchestra (the second on texts from Macbeth),
works which were taken up by Pierre Monteux while the composer
was still a student. The young Landowski was also associated
with Les Six, particularly Milhaud and Honegger, the more rigorous
members of a group generally remembered for its insouciance.
For the first part of his career Landowski dedicated himself
mainly to composition, laying the foundations of what turned out
to be a very large ouvre - and one in which the human voice
played a central role. He continued writing through the German
occupation: an oratorio, Rythmes du Monde, in 1939-41; Brumes,
a symphonic poem, in 1943, La Quete sans fin, another oratorio,
in 1943-44.
His first opera, and one of his most important works, Le Rire
de Nils Halerius, occupied him between 1944 and 1948 (it was
premiered in 1951), and was followed by several more stage works:
Le Fou, a "drame lyrique" in 1948-55, Rabelais, Francois de
France, a one-act "opera-ballet", in 1953, Le Ventriloque, a
"comedie lyrique et dramatique" in 1954-55, and several others
- L'Opera en Poussiere (1958-62), Les Adieux (1959), Le Pont de
l'Esperance (1980), La Prison (1981), La Sorciere du placard aux
balais (a mini-opera for children, 1983, translated by Jeremy
Drake as The Witch of the Broom Cupboard), Montsegur (1985), La
Vieille Maison (1987) and, finally, another children's opera,
P'tit Pierre et la Sorciere du placard aux balais (1991).
Landowski's first purely orchestral work - Edina, a symphonic
poems - appeared in 1946 and was swiftly followed by many more:
suites, further symphonic poems and other pieces, and a series
of five symphonies, the first, entitled Jean de la Peur, composed
in 1949, the most recent, Les Lumieres de la Nuit, completed
only in 1998 and premiered in November that year.
The concerto was another favoured form, and Landowski produced
more than most other twentieth-century composers, not least
because he was writing for musicians who were friends: two for
piano (1942 and 1963), both premiered by Jacqueline Potier, whom
he married, a cello concerto (1944-45), another for ondes martenot
(1954), a bassoon concerto (1957, orchestrated only in 1990),
two flute concertos (1968 and 1998), a concerto for trumpet,
orchestra and tape (1976) which goes by the name of Au bout du
chagrin, une fenetre ouverte, another, Un enfant appelle, for
soprano, cello and orchestra (1978) composed for Vishnevskaya
and Rostropovich, an Improvisation for trombone and orchestra
(1983), Souvenirs d'un jardin d'enfance for oboe and strings
(1990), a concertino for trombone and strings (1990), a Symphonie
concertante for organ and orchestra (1993), Que ma joie demeure
for violin and strings (1994), dedicated to Menuhin, and, lastly,
Un Chant for cello and orchestra.
This selective string of works - which omits chamber, instrumental
and choral music, his ballets and his incidental music for stage
and screen - would be impressive enough if that were all Landowski
had been doing. But when you consider just how much time he was
spending away from his writing desk, it becomes truly remarkable.
His public career began in 1961 when he was appointed Director
of Music at the Comedie-Francaise, a post he held until 1965,
the last year concurrently with the position of Inspecteur General
de l'Enseignement Musical in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
From 1970 to 1975, in the same ministry, he was Directeur de la
Musique, de l'Art Lyrique et de la Danse; and in 1977 he became
Directeur des Affaires Culturelles of the City of Paris.
The honours now began to flood in as well: he was awarded the
Prix Maurice Ravel in 1973, elected to the Institut de France
in 1975 (becoming Perpetual Secretary in 1986 and Chancellor in
1994), made a Commander of the Legion d'honneur in 1987, and in
1994 he became a Grand-Officier de l'Ordre du Merite.
Although his good works are now part of the cultural landscape
in France, it is through his music that Landowski will be
remembered further afield, if ever it gets the opportunity to
travel. The style is very much in the French tradition: one can
easily hear it as an extension from the soundworld of Poulenc
and Honegger, with liberated colours in a basically tonal
framework. Landowski, indeed, rejected the avant garde with
some vigour, complaining that "unfortunately, experimentation
has become for some the goal of art"; no prizes for guessing
whom he had in mind. For Landowski the two big themes of music
were mysticism and love.
MARTIN ANDERSON
Marcel Landowski, composer, conductor, administrator, politician, born Pret
l'Abbe (Finistere), France, 18 February 1915; married Jacqueline Potier, 2
sons, 1 daughter, died Paris, 23 December 1999.
The music, as Bert suggests, isn't bad at all and deserves to be better
known. Cheers
Martin Anderson
Toccata Press
www.toccatapress.com
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