Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the
20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poetic insight into
Romantic piano works, particularly those of
Chopin,
Franck,
Saint-Saëns and
Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
.
[ For Éditions Durand, he edited editions of almost all piano music by Chopin, ]Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
and Schumann.
A central figure of the French musical culture in his time, he was well known for his piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of m ...
with violinist Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist.
Biography
Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...
and cellist Pablo Casals.
Biography
Early life
Cortot was born in Nyon
Nyon (; outdated German: or ; outdated Italian: , ) is a municipality in Nyon District in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Ge ...
, Vaud
Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...
, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, to a French father and a Swiss mother. His first cousin was the composer Edgard Varèse. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
with Émile Decombes
Émile Decombes (9 August 18295 May 1912) (also seen as Descombes) was a French pianist and teacher.
Decombes was born in Nîmes. Little is known about his life other than that he was one of the last pupils of Frédéric Chopin in Paris. He taught ...
(a student of Frédéric Chopin), and with Louis Diémer
Louis Joseph Diémer (14 February 1843 – 21 December 1919) was a French pianist and composer. He was the founder of the Société des Instruments Anciens in the 1890s, and also gave recitals on the harpsichord. His output as a composer was exte ...
, taking a ''premier prix'' in 1896. He made his debut at the Concerts Colonne
The Colonne Orchestra is a French symphony orchestra, founded in 1873 by the violinist and conductor Édouard Colonne.
History
While leader of the Opéra de Paris orchestra, Édouard Colonne was engaged by the publisher Georges Hartmann to lead ...
in 1897, playing Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
's Piano Concerto No. 3.
Between 1898 and 1901 he was a choral coach and subsequently an assistant conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1902 he conducted the Paris premiere of Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's music drama ''Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as ...
(''The Twilight of the Gods). He formed a concert society named ''Société des Concerts'' to perform Wagner's ''Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...
'', Beethoven's ''Missa solemnis
{{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...
'', Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
' '' German Requiem'', and new works by French composers.[ ]
Career
In concert with ">Spéranza Calo-Séailles
In 1905, Cortot formed a trio with Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud (; 27 September 18801 September 1953) was a French violinist.
Biography
Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won th ...
and Pablo Casals, which established itself as the leading piano trio of its era. In 1907, he was appointed Professor by Gabriel Fauré at the Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
, replacing Raoul Pugno. He continued to teach at the Paris Conservatoire until 1923, where his pupils included Yvonne Lefébure, Vlado Perlemuter
Vladislas "Vlado" Perlemuter (26 May 1904 – 4 September 2002) was a Lithuanian-born French pianist and teacher.
Biography
Vladislas (Vlado) Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas in Li ...
, Simone Plé-Caussade, Magdeleine Brard, Marguerite Monnot
Marguerite Monnot (28 May 1903 – 12 October 1961) was a French songwriter and composer best known for having written many of the songs performed by Édith Piaf ("Milord", " Hymne à l'amour") and for the music in the stage musical '' Irma La ...
, and Rodica Sutzu
Rodica Lucia Sutzu (15 April 1913 - 8 May 1979) was a Romanian composer and pianist who studied with Nadia Boulanger and served as the Romanian Radio piano soloist for almost 20 years.
Sutzu was born in Iași to Elena Jules Cazaban and Rudolf Sut ...
.
In 1919, Cortot founded the École Normale de Musique de Paris
The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in Paris, Île-de-France, France. At the time of the school's foundation in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot, Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (Eng ...
. His courses in musical interpretation were legendary. For his many notable students, see here.
As a leading musical figure, Cortot traveled for many international music events. The French government sponsored two promotional tours to the United States and one to the Soviet Union in 1920. He conducted several orchestras and was often called upon to provide piano accompaniment for touring artists when in Paris. He was involved in music until his health failed, and taught master classes in piano in his advanced years.
On 21 March 1925, Cortot made the world's first commercial electrical recording
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near ...
of classical music for the Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...
in Camden, New Jersey: Chopin's Impromptus and Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's Litanei, issued on Victor's Red Seal label.
World War II
During World War II, he accepted the position of ''Haut-Commissaire'' ("High Commissioner") for arts in the Vichy government
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
and served twice (1941 and 1942) as a member of the Vichy's ''Conseil national'' ("National Council")['Alfred Denis Cortot', The Fryderyk Chopin Institut]
accessed 13 January 2018.[David Dubal booklet to ]Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records is a British record company based at Wyastone Leys, Ganarew, Herefordshire. They specialise in classical music recordings and were the first company in the UK to produce compact discs.
Description
Nimbus was founded in 1972 by ...
release of Duo-Art piano rolls [''France The Dark Years 1940–1944'' by ]Julian T. Jackson
Julian Timothy Jackson (born 10 April 1954) is a British historian who is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. He is a professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London, he is one of the leading authorities ...
, published in 2003 by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. However, before this he took a strong stance in defending the French music tradition with the Beaux Arts administration (Fine Arts) supporting soldiers with music. Cortot had to leave this position after Pétain's appointment and exerted his energy instead into writing reports about cultural propaganda and defending French musical styles. He was charged with musical reform by the Pétain government, and the Vichy took control of musical activities. He became part of the'' comité d’organisation professionelle de la musique (The committee for the professional organisation of music)'' in 1942 and worked with Laval and Pétain.
In 1941 he participated in a '' Propaganda Staffel'' (Propaganda Squad) festival in Paris, and in 1942 played with Wilhelm Kempff for Nazi artist Arno Breker's art exposition, later meeting with Brecker at Paul Morand
Paul Morand (13 March 1888 – 24 July 1976) was a French author whose short stories and novellas were lauded for their style, wit and descriptive power. His most productive literary period was the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. He was mu ...
's home. Pierre Laval
Pierre Jean Marie Laval (; 28 June 1883 – 15 October 1945) was a French politician. During the Third Republic, he served as Prime Minister of France from 27 January 1931 to 20 February 1932 and 7 June 1935 to 24 January 1936. He again occ ...
was also present. Mornad had a statue made of Cortot after his impression. He participated in official concerts in Paris during the occupation as well as in Germany in 1942.
Daisy Fancourt
Daisy Fancourt (born June 1990) is a British researcher who is an Associate Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London. Her research focuses on the effects of social factors on health, including loneliness, social is ...
writes:
After the war's conclusion, Cortot was found guilty by a French government panel of collaboration with the enemy and was suspended from performing for a year. He said in his defence, "I’ve given 50 years of my life to the helping the French cause ..when I was asked to become involved with the interests of my comrades, I felt I couldn’t refuse. ..I represented the interests of the French government less than the interests of France. ..I have never been involved in politics." Once the suspension expired he returned to performing more than 100 concerts a season.
Death
Cortot died on 15 June 1962, aged 84, of uremia from kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
in Lausanne, Switzerland
Lausanne ( , , , ) ; it, Losanna; rm, Losanna. is the capital and largest city of the Swiss French speaking canton of Vaud. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway between the Jura Mountains and the Alps, and fac ...
.
Contribution
As one of the most celebrated piano interpreters of Chopin, Schumann and Debussy, Cortot produced printed editions of the piano works of all three, notable for their inclusion of meticulous commentary on technical problems and matters of interpretation.
Cortot suffered from memory lapses in concert (particularly notable from the 1940s onwards) and often left wrong notes on his later records. When in form, however, he showed a brilliant technique that could handle almost any kind of pianistic firework. This gift is evident in his legendary recordings of Liszt's Sonata in B minor (the first recording ever made of this masterwork) and Saint-Saëns' ''Etude en forme de valse''. The latter thoroughly impressed even Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of al ...
, who - according to Cortot - approached Cortot to learn his "secret" in performing it; Cortot, however, did not divulge it to him.
He also wrote a good deal of didactic prose, including a piano primer: ''Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique''. This book contains many finger exercises to aid in the development of various aspects of piano playing technique.
Bibliography
* Cortot, Alfred, ''La musique française de piano'', 1930–48
* —, ''Cours d’interprétation'', 1934 (''Studies in Musical Interpretation'', 1937)
* —, ''Aspects de Chopin'', 1949 (''In Search of Chopin'', 1951)
* —, ''Grundbegriffe der Klaviertechnik'', 1928
Notes
References
Sources
* Gavoty, Bernard, ''Alfred Cortot'', 1977 (in French)
* Manshardt, Thomas, ''Aspects of Cortot'', 1994
External links
Guide to Alfred Cortot Collection, 1491-1853
housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
;Recordings
The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation
Arbiter Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortot, Alfred
1877 births
1962 deaths
People from Nyon
20th-century French male classical pianists
French male conductors (music)
Piano pedagogues
People of Vichy France
French collaborators with Nazi Germany
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
Academics of the École Normale de Musique de Paris
Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
Lausanne Conservatory faculty
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists
Order of the Francisque recipients
Mannes College The New School for Music faculty