GOUNOD Charles (1818 - 1893) - Lot 72

Lot 72
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GOUNOD Charles (1818 - 1893) - Lot 72
GOUNOD Charles (1818 - 1893) MUSICAL MANUSCRIPT autograph "Ch. Gounod", Suite concertante en quatre parties pour pianopédalier et orchestre (1886); one large folio volume of [1 leaf]-133 pages, bound in garnet cloth. Orchestral score of this rare work by Gounod for piano-pedal and orchestra. On January 14, 1886, Gounod gave to Alphonse Leduc, for 7.000 francs, the property of a Suite concertante with piano-pedal, of which he was to give the manuscript on April 7, then a reduction for piano of the orchestra part and a transcription for two pianos (which will be fi nally realized by Saint-Saëns). It is the meeting of the young and pretty Lucie PALICOT, virtuoso of the piano-pedal, which incited Gounod to write a concertante work for this rare instrument, for which he composed three other works, and of which she is the dedicatee. Paul Landormy remembered Lucie Palicot playing: "the impression was strange of this very graceful and cute person perched on a huge case containing the low strings of the pedalboard under a concert piano resting on said case ; and above all, what surprised us, quite pleasantly in fact, was to see Madame Palicot dressed in a short skirt, knee-length, quite necessary, but astonishing in those days, and skirmishing very skilfully with her pretty legs to reach successively the different keys of the keyboard which she had under her feet, all similar to an organ pedal-board. This Suite concertante [CG 526] was first performed in Bordeaux on 22 March 1887, during a concert conducted by Gounod, with Lucie Palicot at the piano-pedal: "I am delighted to have had it heard", he said; it was performed again in Antwerp on 8 December, then in Angers on 6 February 1888. It was published by Alphonse Leduc in 1888. The four parts of this Suite concertante were given titles that do not appear on the manuscript: Entrée de fête, Chasse, Romance and Tarentelle. The orchestra includes: flutes, small flute, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoons, horns in E, horns in D, trumpets in D, 3 trombones, timpani, cymbals and bass drum, triangle, and strings. The manuscript is in black ink on 28-line Lard-Esnault paper; it presents corrections and additions, scratches, as well as annotations in blue pencil (nuances, tempi, etc.). It is signed and dated at the end "7 April 1886". The title page includes the dedication "To Madame Lucie Palicot", and the date: "Paris, 1886". It is divided as follows: Moderato maestoso (p. 1-44); Allegro con fuoco (p. 45-62) then Andante con moto (p. 63-89); Andante cantabile (p. 90-104); Vivace (p. 105-133). Attached are 9 autograph double sheets (paginated 4-41, the beginning is missing) of a first version of a movement of this Suite, or of another work for piano-pedal and orchestra. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gérard Condé, Charles Gounod (Fayard, 2009), p.893-895 (detailed analysis of the work). DISCOGRAPHY Howard Shelley, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana conducted by Robert Prosseda (Hyperion 2013).
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