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. Chailley is the author of 40,000
Years of Music which was published in 1961 at the time
when he was a professor in musicology at the Sorbonne University (Paris).
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, yet she preferred to determine her own
life and destiny and did not pursue a career with a record company
for which she had to sacrifice part of her family life.
There are not too many recordings left of her artistry. Recordings
she made in the shellac era are practically forgotten. As for so many
artists, the advent of the LP record presented new possibilities.
As for Clara Haskil also the 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).
It is probable that Marcel Prawy obtained the tape from the radio
station. Conductor Robert Heger was not on the list of artists Prawy
was working with. 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 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. And Robert Heger
is an able conductor. The atmosphere is of a live performance.
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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.
Recordings by Céliny Chailley-Richez 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 appeared 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.
Symphonium
45 SV 67 (7" record) - Schumann: Scènes d'enfants (Kinderszenen)
Decca FM 133.705 (10") - Schumann: Kreisleriana (recorded around
1954)
Columbia
GFX 121/3 (3 - 12" 78 RPM) - Enesco: Third Sonata
for Violin and Piano ('dans le caractère roumain') with the
composer at the piano. Later released on (Pathé-Marconi C 061-11637).
See
Neal's
Historical
Recordings.
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 No. 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.
