French
pianist Céliny Chailley-Richez accompanied violinist Georges Enesco
and played under his direction concertos of J.S. Bach. She also accompanied
violinist Helen Airoff, and recorded Schumann's Piano Concerto in
A Op. 54 in Vienna for Remington Records.
Céliny Richez
-in some publications her first name is spelled Céline- was born on
May 15, 1884 in Lille, in the north of France. Her father, Emile Richez,
was a head teacher and her mother, Léonie Galle, was from a musical
family.
After her talent had been discovered, already at the age of ten Céliny
started her studies to the Lille Conservatory (Conservatoire de Lille).
After winning first prize for piano and solfège the following summer,
the young pianist was admitted at the 'Conservatoire de Paris' (Paris
Conservatory) where she studied with Stéphane Raoul Pugno
(Paris, 1852 - Moscow, 1914), composer and famous Mozart pianist at
the time.
In 1898 Céliny won first prize again and it is probable that she did
meet violinist Georges Enesco - whom she became to admire so
much - in that same year or in the following year when the young Romanian
won his first prize (1899), despite the fact that she only formed
a duo with the famous violinist much later, from 1926 on.
She then studied
harmony with professor Samuel Alexandre Rousseau (1853-1904).
In order to continue these she took up teaching. Fortunately the city
of Lille -as her biography tells us- gave her a yearly allowance of
1000 francs for a period of three years, which made studying easier.
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Marcel
and Céliny in the early years of their marriage.
Image courtesy Musica et
Memoria/The Chailley Family (Edited by R.A.B.)
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In 1907 Céliny
met Marcel Chailley, the young violinist, who a few years earlier
(in 1902), had won "Second Prize of the Paris Conservatory"
and played next to Jacques Thibaud in the Concerts Colonne
Orchestra.
Céliny and Marcel married in 1908. They had five children. Two of
them -Jacques and Marie-Thérèse- became excellent musicians. Marie-Thérèse
(1921-2001) was a violist.
Jacques Chailley (1910-1999) studied composition with Nadia
Boulanger, Claude Delvincourt and Henri Büsser, and musicology with
André Pirro, organist Yvonne Rokseth and -during his stay in Amsterdam
at 'La Maison Descartes', the French cultural institute - he studied
with Dutch musicologist Albertus A. Smijers (an expert on Dutch
early music), and with Willem Mengelberg, conductor of the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Marcel Chailley
had formed his own string quartet in 1905 with a.o. Armenian
violoncellist Diran Alexanian. With Céliny at the piano the
quartet became the Chailley-Richez Quintet. Céliny herself
founded a Quintet of Strings and Piano of exclusively female performers
which she led until 1947. And she often was a soloist with the Lamoureux
and Concerts Colonne orchestras.
Although Marcel
and Céliny both were performing artists -they both knew Camille
Saint-Saëns and Céliny had played 'à quatre mains' on two
pianos with the composer in Manchester in 1908- they also were dedicated
teachers. They took part in the cultural and musical life in Paris
and during the years 1918/1919 in Brazil.
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Céliny
Chailley-Richez
Image
courtesy Musica et Memoria/The Chailley Family (Edited by R.A.B.)
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In their home
in Paris they entertained the musicians and composers of the time
and upcoming talents: violinist Ginette Neveu (1919-1949),
pianist and composer Sviatoslav Stravinsky (1910-1994; "the
son of Prince Igor" as he was referred to), violinist Giorgio Ciompi
(1905-1956), Lola Bobesco (1920-2003), and Daniel Guilet
who at first pursued a solo career and later founded the Guilet String
Quartet with Henry Siegl, William Schoen and David Soyer and in 1955
founded The Beaux Arts Trio with pianist Menahem Pressler and
cellist Bernard Greenhouse (the trio started recording for
the Philips label in 1967; after Guilet retired in 1969 he was replaced
by Isidore Cohen).
Among the visitors to the Chailley house were also violinist Serge
Blanc, and violinist Denise Soriano (1916-2006) who later married
famous teacher Jules Boucherit; she made various recordings
with pianist Magda Tagliaferro (who founded a piano school
in Brazil).
For health reasons
Marcel retired from his career as performer in 1926. In that same
year Céliny started performing with Georges Enesco while Marcel
dedicated himself now solely to teaching, worked with Jacques Thibaud,
and assisted famous violin pedagogue Jules Boucherit. Marcel died
in 1936.
Céliny, an independent spirit, now more often performed with violinist
George Enesco with whom she formed a well known duo. (Near the end
of her life she donated from her personal possession various scores
with the maestro's annotations, and several photographs and documents
to the Georges Enesco Museum in Bucarest.)
It is not for
every musician to have an international career. Céliny Chailley-Richez
was an eloquent performer, she preferred to determine her own life
and destiny and pursued a career which was dictated by a demanding
business contract for which she sacrificed part of her personal and
family life.
Yet there are not too many recordings left of her. The recordings
made in the shellac era are practically forgotten. As for so many
artists, the advent of the Lp record presented new possibilities.
As in the case of Clara Haskil, also the recording career of Céliny
Chailley-Richez came rather late in life when she was in her sixties.
Around 1951
the recording of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A, Op. 54, was
made in Vienna were her performance was probably broadcast by the
ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation - Oesterreichisher Rundfunk).
Either the tape was obtained by Marcel Prawy, or he had the recording
made on another day, probably after rehearsals. If the recording was
a 'studio recording' produced by him, there would not have been time
and money available to make more takes. Splicing was practically out
of the question. But the performance of the Schumann Concerto with
Mme Chailley-Richez and conductor Robert Heger shows fine music making.
The dynamic contrasts suggesting drama and the varying tempi, do fully
illustrate the art of the pianist and her aims. And she is quite Schumannesque
in tempo and articulation. Céliny Chailley-Richez reveals clearly
the different moods of Schumann and she distinguishes herself with
some beautiful phrasing and 'jeu perlé'. Furthermore the second
movement is poetic and well structured, while the finale has strength.
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Céliny
Chailley-Richez and Georges Enesco at the time when they did
the recordings of the Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach in
the early nineteen fifties.
Image courtesy Musica et
Memoria/The Chailley Family (Edited by R.A.B.).
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Examples of
her qualities are technically much better recorded by Decca in a studio
recording of works by César Franck and Jacques Chailley.
And there are the performances of the Piano Concertos of J.S. Bach
conducted by Georges Enesco.
Enesco had taught in the USA and had performed and recorded in New
York at various occasions before returning to Paris for good. He had
recorded the Bach Sonatas and Partitas in New York. The recording
of the Violin Sonatas of Schumann and Enesco's Second Sonata, with
Céliny Chailley-Richez at the the piano, were probably made in Paris
at the time when Enesco recorded his Octuor (Octet for Strings) for
Remington Records. Violist Marie-Thérèse Chailley-Guiard,
Céliny's and Marcel's daughter, was a member of the ensemble.
The other players were violinists Robert Gendre, M.L.Ricros, F.Geyre,
and D. Marchand; violist Colette Lequien; and cellists A. Remond and
J. Brizard.
Both Céliny Chailley-Richez and 
Georges Enesco were independent
artists, each choosing to go an individual way, rebellious in the
sense of not accepting reigning standards beforehand, but always staying
in the context of the classical domain. There were similarities between
these individuals, even competitive traits in their characters which
made their music making an experience but stood a deeper personal
relationship in the way. They always met on the artistic level.
After the recordings of the Concertos for Clavier (Piano) and Orchestra
of Johann Sebastian Bach with Enesco conducting 'L association des
concerts de chambre de Paris', and after Georges Enesco had died in
1955, Céliny retired completely from public life. It was some twenty
years later, in 1973, that Céliny Chailley-Richez passed away
at the age of 88.
The Remington
recordings of Céliny Chailley-Richez:
Remington R-149-42 - Enesco: Sonata No. 2 in F minor for Violin
and Piano played by the composer and Céliny Chailley-Richez,
piano - (the name of the pianist wrongly spelled as Chaillez-Riches)
Remington
R-149-50 - Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor Op. 121. Georges
Enesco, violin and Céliny Chailley-Richez, piano.
Remington
R-199-65 - Schumann: Piano Concerto Op. 54. Céliny Chailley-Richez,
piano with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Heger
(1886-1978), also released in France on Concerteum C-234.
Remington
R-199-95 -Beethoven: Sonata for Piano and Violin Nr. 8,
Helen Airoff, violin; coupled
with Sonata No. 2 played by Erich Berg and Walter Schneiderhan (Concerteum
C-225)
Recordings for other labels:
Decca FST
153.640 - Franck: Prélude, Choral et Fugue, Chopin: Sonata No.
2. Céliny Chailley-Richez, piano.
Franck's Prelude, Choral and Fugue appreared on London TW 91145, USA
and on Decca-Telefunken TW 91145 in Great Britain, but now coupled
with "Missa solemnis a capella", a composition written by her
son Jacques Chailley in 1947 and first performed at the Besançon
Festival in 1955. The Decca TW 91145 was first released in the fall
of 1956. Jacques Chailley's Symphony in G
Decca FAT-173053
- Bach: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 & 5
Decca FAT-173050
- Bach: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 & 7
Decca FAT-173119
- Bach: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 and Concerto for Two
Pianos and Orchestra No. 3 with Françoise Le Gonidec
Decca FAT-173068 - Bach: Concertos for Piano and Orchestra
No. 4 & 6
Decca FAT-173530 - Bach: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.
8 coupled with Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Pierre Rampal,
flute, and Christian Ferras, violin
Decca FAT-173094 - Bach: Concertos for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Nos. 1 & 2
Decca FAT-173097 - Bach: Concertos for Three Pianos and Orchestra
No. 1 & 2 with Françoise Le Gonidec and Jean-Jacques Painchaud
Decca FAT-143.538 - Bach: Concerto for Four Pianos and Orchestra
with Françoise Le Gonidec, Jean-Jacques Painchaud and Hélène Grimaud;
a 10" record.
For CD-transfers consult
Baroque-Music-club.com
Symphonium
45 SV 67 (7" record) - Schumann: Scènes d'enfants (Kinderszenen)
Decca FM 133.705 (10") - Schumann: Kreisleriana (recorded around
1954)
Pathé-Marconi
C 061-11637 - Enesco: Third Sonata for Violin and Piano ('dans
le caractère roumain') with the composer.
There is also
a private recording of works by Liadow and Biroulski (Jeux d'enfants),
and there is a private recording made in 1952 and released by French
Columbia in 1957 with Céliny Chailley-Richez and Georges Enesco performing
Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin Nr. 9, "Kreutzer" (Columbia
FC1058).
R.A.B., August
5, 2004 - Various biographical data provided by Dominique Chailley,
the artist's grandson.
For in-depth articles see
Musica et
memoria (http://www.musimem.com). Also browse 'biographies'
and 'obituaires' of this excellent French site.
