SAINT-SAËNS (Camille). Autograph letter signed to the publis - Lot 117

Lot n° 117
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Result : 520EUR
SAINT-SAËNS (Camille). Autograph letter signed to the publis - Lot 117
SAINT-SAËNS (Camille). Autograph letter signed to the publisher of mu_x0002_sique Henri Heugel. May 1908]. 4 pp 1/2 in-folio. Open letter published on May 23, 1908 in the weekly Le Ménestrel, directed by Henri Heugel, in reaction to an article by Arthur Pougin on Rameau published on May 16, 1908. "I read in Le Ménestrel this sentence: "Gluck is broad, pompous and solemn, he gives the idea of ancient tragedy, whereas Rameau is lively, tormented, full of vigour and action...". To let this pass without protesting is beyond my strength... For some years now, with the best intentions in the world, as a result of forgetting the traditions, of an inaccurate interpretation of the author's indications, we have been given an idea of Gluck's works that is so different from their true nature, that the public, while admiring them with confidence, only admires the shadow of the masterpieces that it thinks it knows. GLUCK IS NEITHER BROAD, NOR POMPOUS, NOR SOLEMN; GLUCK IS LIFE, PASSION, DRAMATIC FEELING AT ITS MOST INTENSE... While usually one inflicts on the musical works of the past movements too precipitous, unknown in the time when these works were written, as soon as one tackles the operas of Gluck, it is quite the opposite, one believes one must proceed with a majestic slowness, and these burning pages are extinguished under a coat of ice... "How do you know all this," someone will say to me? You didn't know Gluck." No, but I HAVE KNOWN BERLIOZ A LOT, AND BERLIOZ, IN HIS EARLY YOUTH, HAD SEEN GLUCK'S WORKS REPRESENTED AT THE OPERA, WHILE THE TRADITIONS WERE NOT LOST, while the "broad diction", which killed the recitative, had not yet been invented, he had a very precise memory of these performances, and this memory, I can affirm, was by no means that of width and solemnity... "By way of comparison, Camille Saint-Saëns praised Sarah Bernhardt's acting, which had taken the ancient tragedies out of the dull pomp to which they had been relegated.
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