Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COLLABORATIVE
MUSIC
Sponsored by
Presiding
Pianoforte
At The
By Richard Masters
H.C. Timm
leagues in a concert designed to display his prominence in musical society, helping him to find
wealthy students.15 When high-powered virtuosi
like Paganini and Liszt began to tread the boards,
their presentations needed no accompanist at the
keyboard (Paganini and his instrumentalist/singer
brethren played with orchestra, while Liszt played
by himself ), but their supporting artists at times
required musical assistance. For example, a breathless handbill announcing an 1840 Liszt recital in
Stamford (Southern Lincolnshire, U.K.) informed
the public that Liszt would share the stage with
Mr. Mori, Mr. Richardson (a celebrated flautist),
Mademoiselle De Varnay (Prima Donna of La
Scala), Miss Louisa Bassano and Mr. J. Parry. On
the handbill, the name of the accompanist appears
in tiny type, with that most elegant of Victorian
phrases informing the public that one Mr. Lavenu
will preside at the pianoforte.16 The accompanist,
as experienced by the audience at this time, was
thus a third-tier figure; the crowds attended to see
the virtuoso, and while waiting for his contributions, they settled for the lesser lights, who were in
turn discreetly supported by the accompanist.
For most concert artists, the accompanists job
was to churn out the accompaniment for any given
short piece with which he could be trusted. This
was partly a function of the musical taste of the
time, which did not embrace the more profound
side of the musical spectrum. Given the nature of
the works commonly presented to the public, its
no wonder that the accompanists stature suffered.
An 1872 concert given by Adelina Patti and the
tenor Mario (a single-named singing sensation
much like our Madonna or Prince) with supporting artists Teresa Carreo and Emil Sauret featured a variety of arias and parlor ballads (Eckerts
Laughing Song, excerpts from Les Huguenots &
Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Raggio damor, and so on),
transcriptions for violin including a medley of
tunes from Rossinis Otello) and piano solos.
According to the review, nearly every work was
encored, so the program must have been of horrific
length.17 The accompanist was a Signor Marzo,
whose only mention in the Times review was a
phrase still beloved of unimaginative critics:
Signor Marzo was the accompanist. The modern
reader will notice the heavy number of orchestral
reductions, both in transcriptions and arias; for the
majority of the 19th century, the idea of a sonata
or lieder evening was foreign to even the most serious-minded concertgoer. Important instrumental
works like the Kreutzer Sonata were trotted out
by violinists only to prove their well-roundedness,
18
Gwendolyn Koldofsky
20
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