In The Bio Sphere

I was hoping to discover something new. That seemed appropriate, since I was preparing a program for October 12. 

And indeed, I came upon a humble auto-bio of the Russian-born pianist Anastasia Injushina.  It was at a website which hasn’t been updated in a long, long time.  She opens by saying that unlike all the other bios she has seen, all of which begin with the phrase “praised by critics,” she simply tells her story and asks that you make a judgement when you listen to her perform. 

She mentions coming from a family of engineers. And she reveals that listening to Dvořák’s Violin Concerto at age 3 brought classical music to her attention. She started piano lessons when she was 4, performed as a soloist with an orchestra in St. Petersburg at age 10, and moved to Finland in 1991. In acknowledging her teachers, she includes all the legendary composers and pianists from whom she’s learned something. 

We first learned of Injushina with her 2013 CD of concertos by members of the Bach family, which she recorded the year before with the Hamburg Camerata conducted by Ralf Góthoni. By the way, that recording was praised by critics.

Her bio was a refreshing change from most of those I’ve encountered online. And I was reminded of it recently when I played the Berceuse (Lullabye) for violin and piano by Gabriel Fauré featuring violinist Augustin Dumay and pianist Jean-Philippe Collard. The piece was included in a collection of the composer’s chamber music, which was recorded some 50 years ago by a number of now famous French musicians. 

Dumay’s online bio tells us that his career began in 1980, when he was discovered by conductor Herbert von Karajan. That suggests that the Fauré piece was recorded before his career began, whatever that means. He wasn’t a kid at the time, but in his late 20s. And the recording is definitely a “keeper,” as they say.  Jean-Philippe Collard was born the year before Dumay. I wondered if his career had “begun” yet when the recording was made.

Bios often include the titles of works written for a performer by composers of their time. It seems that Nicholas Chédeville wanted to add works by Antonio Vivaldi to his bio. Chédeville was an 18^th century musette player. A musette is a type of bagpipe. Actually, he saved Vivaldi the trouble of writing works for him. He borrowed bits and pieces of Vivaldi’s music, as well as some by Vivaldi’s contemporaries. With all of that, he created a number of sonatas and attached Vivaldi’s name to them.

The collection was called il pastor fido (The Faithful Shepherd) and published in Paris in 1737. Chédeville was somewhat faithful in writing appropriate music in between that which he borrowed, but not in being honest about what he had done. It wasn’t until the 1980s - some 200 years after his death - that scholars solved the puzzle. 

According to Vivaldi specialist Michael Talbot, nobody questioned the sonatas at first.  And a famous music historian cited them as evidence of a ‘late-period’ style in Vivaldi’s music. Then, suspicions grew as scholars recognized themes by other composers of that time.  A letter was discovered in which Vivaldi said he decided not to publish any works after 1733 - 4 years before the sonatas were published. And, according to music historian Jane Bowers, a document also exists in which the publisher declared Chédeville to be the composer. Chédeville is mentioned as having paid for the publication. 

The sonatas are still in the Vivaldi catalog, with RV numbers assigned to them, like all of Vivaldi works. Michael Talbot commented that the sonatas “are no less attractive as music than when they were thought genuine.” The set of 6 sonatas was written for a treble instrument and bass. That meant either a musette, violin, hurdy-gurdy – which is a violin-like instrument, flute, or oboe. 

I mentioned another bagpiper/composer on Classic Mornings when I played an orchestral work by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.  Marx Augustin was a bagpiper and balladeer in Vienna. The story is told that during the time of the plague, he was mistaken for dead. Seems he’d been drinking. He and his bagpipes were tossed onto a cart alongside plague victims. He eventually woke up and played his instrument as a call for help. He wrote the famous song: O du lieber Augustin, also known as Ach du lieber Augustin, in 1679.  In 1814, Hummel, the pianist, composer, and Beethoven contemporary, wrote orchestral variations on the tune.  And lyrics of all sorts have been sung to it over the centuries.

I often include stories of all sorts with the music I bring to listeners on Classic Mornings.  So, join us Monday-Friday from 9-noon on Illinois Classical, WILL 90.9 FM or online at will.illinois.edu.