GOUNOD Charles.

Lot 299
Go to lot
Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Result without fees
Result : 2 800EUR
GOUNOD Charles.
44 L.A.S., 1851-1855, to SA MÈRE Victoire GOUNOD; about 130 pages in-8 or in-12, addresses (2 with cut-outs, qqs vignettes of the Mont St Michel); under an autograph leaflet of Gounod: "à ma mère". Very beautiful correspondence to his beloved mother. Stay in London in July-August 1851, where Sapho will be performed at Covent Garden, on 9 August, with Pauline Viardot. - Monday the 13th. After an arduous crossing, he arrived at his friend Charley's and, with the composer Hullah, they took a tour of London: "London looks like a city of riding schools and horse conventions. For example, there are beautiful parks with huge lawns, such as I have never seen before... He prepares for his concert: "I will have 500 musicians in all"; he thinks he will stay longer to attend the performance of "Mendelssohn's Elijah with 700 or 800 musicians under Costa's direction" .... - Thursday. He gave his concert: "Well, it seems that the result is good. The Sanctus made a very deep impression; it was given a standing ovation"; as for the Benedictus, "I would have liked it to be more piano and more mysterious; the effect would have been double"; the Athalie chorus did not satisfy him: Costa "praised it highly; but he said 'ah! poor boy! How they slaughter you for it!"; he "dissected" his music without emotion: "The question for me was only to know if I had written what I thought, was my effort going to be the exact translation of my intention, that was my fear. I must say that none of my effects have deceived me: all the remarks I have made against myself have been about the proportion of the ideas, never about the timbres. The Sanctus moved the listeners to tears, including Costa who said: "Since Mendelssohn, I have not heard anything so beautiful", Manuel, the Hullahs... - Tuesday midnight. He heard "The Magic Flute by the divine Mozart" which disappointed him: "This music is fashioned by hands so smooth and pure that all those who touch it look like rude louts. [...] Since the work is not a dramatic conception, one cannot rely on the effects of passion, which are always more or less within everyone's reach; here the author has used only such placid resources, of an order so far removed from passions and real life, that one needs to be very used to it and to have a great love of the ideal rather than of reality in order to appreciate it. He saw Tamberlick again, who was going to sing in Sapho: "he has one of the most timbred, warm and vibrant organs I have ever heard in my life: on stage, it must be superb. He heard the Hullah concert, "without much pleasure, except for the always pleasant sensation of a choral mass of 400 or 500 voices, but the value of the pieces performed was rather slim"; at the rehearsal, Pauline Viardot, unwell, was absent; she is to sing Le Prophète. - 19 July. "Here are the rehearsals beginning to come together: the memory is beginning to dawn; there are no longer so many mistakes in notes and text". He has heard Handel's Messiah "performed by 700 musicians with orchestra.../...and organ, but a big organ as in the churches. These are admirable solemnities. [...] What giant music this Messiah oratorio is! One really does not know if one is on earth or transported to a new world [...] All this leaves you with a deep and lasting impression of a great genius venerated by a great people and preserved by great institutions". - 6 [August]. He begins rehearsals: " at a first reading, the orchestra received me on Monday in the most flattering manner, and my music produced in general an impression of poetry and elevation that gave me great pleasure. Everyone is happy with his role. Costa is becoming more and more charming to me, and on Monday I was as much amazed by his sure and quick intelligence as I was touched by his affectionate zeal [...] Costa says that now the orchestra will run like clockwork because my music is so frank. [...] The Introduction comes out admirably; the effect of the whole third act is excellent: these string instruments are magnificent! Tamburini will be excellent in Pytheas: his role amuses him a lot [...] and Tamberlick (Phaon) what an excellent boy! And what a voice! He is worried about Pauline Viardot's voice: 'I am afraid that our poor friend's voice is very close to its end: she does not say so; but her face, and that of Viardot, indicate sufficiently how much she is tormented by it'; she sang 'D. Anna in this admirable Don Juan: she sang out of tune for most of the evening and made me suffer terribly for the trouble she took; in the end she could not take it any more. Tomorrow the Prophet to do it again. You professional dog!"... - August 8. Tomorrow has
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue