It
was in 1950 that she made her first recording for the Remington label
with conductor Kurt Wöss
of Tchaikovsky's Concerto Op. 35. Later recordings of Kreisler pieces,
Bruch's Violin Concerto and Kol Nidrei -originally written for cello
and orchestra- with conductor Wilhelm Loibner (1909-1971) were added
to the Remington catalog. That is the beginning of her discography.
French violinist
Michèle Auclair (born on November 16, 1924) studied at the
Paris Conservatoire with Jules Boucherit and Jacques Thibaud from
France, and with Russian Boris Kamensky. They all influenced the development
of her talent and explains her style of playing with a beautiful technique
and above all with a natural passion. In 1943 she won the "Prix Jacques
Thibaut Marguerite Long" and in 1945 she was a laureate of the "Concours
International de Genève", the Geneva International Competition.
There is mention
of a performance by twenty year old Michèle Auclair on Sunday,
February 4, 1945, in liberated Paris. She played Mozart's Concerto in
G Major K216 with "l'Orchestre de la Société des
Concerts du Conservatoire" and conductor Charles Münch. This
was her first major appearance in public in a concert hall. In 1948
she also performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra the Brahms Concerto,
again conducted by Charles Münch.
Michèle
Auclair came to the USA in 1949 to study with Theodore and Alice Pashkus
in New York (See also Young Violinist's
Edition).
In January 1951 she made her debut for the American audience with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She played the Tchaikovsky Concerto
Op. 35 and this performance (the rehearsal was on January 27) was
again conducted by Charles Munch. There exists a recording of this
rehearsal without interruption, of course in a more or less loose
style, saving the energy for the actual concert performance.
She made recordings which were released on Don Gabor's labels Remington,
Masterseal, Masque and in France on the Concerteum label. She also
recorded for Philips. Some of these recordings were re-released by
Philips on their Fontana and Classette labels. Later she recorded
in France for Erato and Discophiles Français.
She was a honorary
professor of the Paris Conservatoire, a frequent guest at the faculty
of the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, and often a jury member
of mayor competitions.
She also taught
at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts (1989-2004).
Portrait
of young Michèle Auclair.
Picture edited by R.A.B., taken from
the back of a REMINGTON cover.
The
recorded performance os the Tchaikovsky concerto shows passion and
a strong and beautiful tone, not only witnessing Miss Auclair's virtuosity
and sensitivity, but also letting us know how important the cooperation
is between conductor, solist and orchestra. Although the technical
quality of the recording (R-199-20; reissued on Plymouth
P-12-121) does not rise above the level of the regular Remingtons
(it all depends on the quality of the pressing you obtain), this performance
is of a very high standard, not only because of the passionate interpretation,
but also because of the inhibited and youthful playing. The liner
notes of the first release give a short biography:
Michèle
Auclair, at twenty one, has already achieved world recognition
as a violin virtuoso. Born in Paris, the daughter of a noted
painter, she started study of the violin at the age of six.
She was enrolled in the National Conservatoire of Paris and
won first prize upon graduation as well as first prize at
the International Music Festival in Geneva.
She made her debut in Paris appearing as soloist with the
Orchestra de la Société des Concerts. Since
then she appeared with all the French orchestras of national
importance and played with ever increasing acclaim in Switzerland,
Belgium, Germany, Greece and throughout South America. This
season her American debut is being effected with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under Charles Munch at which time she will
play the Tchaikovsky Concerto.
A pupil of Theodore Pashkus, the noted violin pedagogue of
New York City, Michèle Auclair is considered today
to be most likely to succeed Erica Morini as the foremost
feminine violinist of the world.
Her repertory embraces virtually all the known works of forgotten
masters, whose glory she is continuously reviving.
An interesting sidelight on the Tchaikovsky work presented
here is that Miss Auclair recorded the work with a Guarnerius
violin, which had been the property of Adolf Brodzky, violin
virtuoso of the last century. It was Brodzky who gave the
first performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto when the work
received its world première in Vienna in 1881 and also
the initial American presentation more than a decade later
at Carnegie Hall. Both the deceased virtuoso and Miss Auclair
used the same Guarnerius which was much admired for its pure
singing tone by Tchaikovsky himself.
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The technical quality
of the re-release on the Masterseal label from around 1957 has a less
chiseled sound and is not as clear, which makes Masterseal MSLP
5004 less authentic and less enjoyable (and has less value for
collectors). The same performance also appeared on Masque 10.011,
another of Don Gabor's labels.
On a later release on one of Don Gabor's labels the Tchaikovsky Concerto
is in real STEREO and although the cover mentions Michèle Auclair,
she is not the soloist. The
Palace release in phony stereo (Palace PST624[s]) is not the
Auclair performance either. 
Steve
Slezak reported that from performance listings, it seems that the
Palace recording, attributed to Michele Auclair, is actually one of
the Paul Lazare-produced recordings, listed with Janine Andrade (b.
Nov. 13, 1918) and the Hamburg Radio Symphony, Hans Jürgen Walther
conducting. Walther was the superb conductor on many of the hokey-named
small label issues in the early days of stereo. So the early Remington
is preferred.
Michèle Auclair attained the same level of intensity in a
later performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto recorded for Philips.
She plays with the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Innsbruck conducted
by Robert Wagner. If this excellent sound recording was released in
the Philips 835-series, it certainly was only available in France
as Philips had other violinists for sale. On Philips 838
608 VY HIFI-STEREO the concerto was coupled with her performance
of the Mendelssohn Concerto. These recordings were later released
on Fontana 700 155 WGY and on another Fontana coupled
with the Tchaikovsky's Piano Concert No. 1 played by Jacques Klein
with the Brabant Orchestra conducted by Hein Jordans. The Tchaikovsky
recording was also released in a very good mono edition coupled with
Herman Krebbers's rendition of the Bruch concerto.
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Photograph
of young Michèle Auclair
Picture taken from the back of an early release of the Tchaikovsky
Concerto. Picture edited by R.A.B..
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The same Mendelssohn
performance can be found on a later, yet very good sounding Fontana
pressing from France (6554.032), coupled with 2 excerpts of
Schubert's Rosamunde played by The Hague Residency Orchestra conducted
by Willem van Otterloo, and also on a Dutch Fontana with reference
number 6530 006 (with Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting Mendelssohn's
4th Symphony). Another Fontana release is 700 161 WGY (200.063
WGL is the mono issue) with the performances of Mozart's Violin concertos
K218 and K219 with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Marcel Couraud conducting.
Recordings of
Michele Auclair are rare.
On Fontana 6554 031 she plays Brahms' Concerto with Willem
van Otterloo conducting the 'Wiener Symphoniker' (Vienna Symphony
Orchestra). It really is strange that so few recordings were made
with Mme. Auclair. Even the Brahms Concerto recorded with Willem van
Otterloo was not available in many countries and only could be ordered
and if it was available it was only for a short period of time. In
France it appeared in the Philips 836 series. The policy seemed to
be not to release that recording except in France because M. Auclair
was considered more or less a local/regional artist and not of world
stature! More so Philips gave priority to the other violinists in
their catalogue: Zino Francescati, Isaac Stern, Arthur Grumiaux, and
later Henryk Szeryng. A mistake of judgement by the A&R Department.
She also recorded Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 of Bela Bartok
and Prokofiev's Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2 in D, Op.94a, in
which she is accompanied by Jacqueline Robin, piano. The recording
was issued on the Coup d'archet label.
And on Musical Heritage Society 606/7 were released 'The Complete
Works for Violin and Piano' of Franz Schubert with pianist Geneviève
Joy, a 2 Lp set.
On Discophiles Français DF-209-210 she plays Sonatas
for Keyboard and Violin (Sonates pour clavier et violon) of Johann
Sebastian Bach, Marie-Claire Alain at the organ. On the same label,
reference No. 525-122, she plays the Violin Sonatas by Claude
Debussy and Maurice Ravel, with Jacqueline Bonneau at the piano.
Note:
Michèle Auclair
is not the violinist in the recording of "L'histoire du soldat" (Stravinsky)
on Vox PL 7960 with the Oubradous Chamber Orchestra conducted by Fernand
Oubradous as some sellers of vintage vinyl may want us to believe.
The name listed for the recording is that of actor Michel Auclair
who is the narrator of the story.
Michèle
Auclair also recorded pieces by Fritz Kreisler which she performs
with pianist Otto Schulhof (1889-1958) and can be found on Remington
R-199-126. The program:
*Liebesfreud,,
*Liebesleid,
*Schön Rosmarin,
*Caprice viennois,
*Old Refrain, and
*Tambourin chinois.
On the B-side the Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Max Schönherr
plays ballet music by Delibes (Coppelia, Sylvia). Record released
in July 1953.
On the back of R-199-126
a short biographical note was printed about concert and recital pianist
Otto Schulhof (March 3rd 1889 - April 16th, 1958), an extremely fine
accompanist. Kubelik is of course violinist Jan Kubelik.
OTTO SCHULHOF
is a nativ of that city of musical history, Vienna. He has toured
Europe with Kreisler, Huberman and Kubelik and for many years
played with the great master of the cello, Pablo Casals. (...)
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Another selection
of Kreisler Favorites, also played with Otto Schulhof, can be found
on R-199-128:
*Praeludium & Allegro (Pugnani-Kreisler)
*Melodie (Gluck-Kreisler)
*Rondino On A Theme Of Beethoven (Kreisler)
*Songs My Mother Taught Me (Dvorak-Kreisler)
*Serenade Espagnola (Chaminade-Kreisler)
*Danse Espagnole (de Falla-Kreisler).
On the B-Side cellist Gaspar Cassado plays his favourites:
*Spinning Wheel (Mendelssohn)
*Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 (Chopin)
*Gavotte, Op.23 (Popper)
*Melody (Rubinstein)
*Valse sentimental (Tchaikovsky)
*Improvisations on "The Blue Danube" (Strauss-Cassado).
The cooperation
with Wilhelm Loibner in the Bruch Concerto and Kol Nidrei (Remington
R-199-127) misses the fire and nervousness of the Tchaikovsky
performance. Both soloist and conductor remain in calm waters. About
these performances critic Warren
De Motte said rightfully that "Michèle Auclair plays
with tempered feeling."
Listening to the same recording 50 years later, one can not help adhering
a deeper intensity to the performance, which is mainly brought about
by the calmness and slow tempi.
R.A.B. October
2000
According to
the Nécropole site it was on June 10th, but newspaper 'Le monde'
reported that on Wednesday June 8th, 2005, Michèle Auclair
passed away at the age of 80 in Paris. She had been married to composer
Antoine Duhamel and later to critic Armand Panigel. After a severe
accident she was forced to end a relatively short career as a soloist.
In 1969 she became a violin teacher at the 'Conservatoire national
supérieur de musique' (CNSM) - National Conservatory of Music
- in Paris, a post which she held until 1990, the year of her retirement.
The Boston Globe published an obituary stating the importance of Michèle
Auclair when she was teaching at the New England Conservatory and
remembering the performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto she gave with
the Boston Symphony under the direction of Charles Munch.
The French minister of culture and communications, Renaud Donnedieu
de Vabres, remembered the great violinist "whose renown of international
soloist was only equaled by her talent and her immense passion as
a pedagogue, a mission which was brought by Michèle Auclair
to the highest level for more than twenty years."
Listening again
to her playing, it is Pugnani's Praeludium & Allegro in the arrangement
of Fritz Kreisler, that she performs so extremely well and seems to
sum up her life. It is a prayer, leaving this earth with grace, and
reminiscing the vivacity of a life, full of occurrences, praise and
devotion, which finally ends in an affirmative manner.
Her recording of the Kreisler favorites and her other relatively rare
recordings will always remind us of her passionate style and superb
mastering of the art of violin playing.
Rudolf A.Bruil.
June 18th, 2005
