Tout Paris came together 100 years ago to fete the Russian-born conductor upon his election as a Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur.
Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky (1874-1951)
The Russian-born conductor Serge Koussevitzky arrived in Paris in 1920, leaving behind Soviet Russia where he had led the Philharmonic Orchestra of Petrograd since 1917. Maestro Koussevitzky was already a household name in music, of course, as his reputation stretched back nearly two decades – first as a noted double bass player (he also played piano, violin, cello and trumpet) and later as a conductor, beginning with his 1908 debut leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Upon settling in Paris, the conductor immediately organized the Concerts Koussevitzky, which he would lead in in nine memorable seasons from 1921 to 1929. Those concert programs were ones that presented new works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Ravel (the famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s solo piano work Pictures at an Exhibition) as well as offering numerous other modern compositions – among them Florent Schmitt’s La Tragédie de Salomé and Rêves.
Koussevitzky’s growing fame as a conductor of international renown spread quickly, extending even to the United States where, in 1924, he was named the new music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, replacing the departing Pierre Monteux.
A photo of the Boston Symphony Orchestra during Serge Koussevitzky’s tenure as music director.
The Boston orchestra was an ensemble Koussevitzky would lead for the next quarter-century, cementing his legacy not only with noteworthy performances and recordings of repertoire stretching from Bach through the Romantics to the 20th century, but also by premiering new works from composers ranging from Frenchmen Albert Roussel and Florent Schmitt to Prokofiev, Bartok and Bax, plus Americans Barber, Bernstein and Copland, to name just some.
It is a measure of the significant Serge Koussevitzky’s artistic influence and cultural impact that, in 1925, he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d’honneur in France, barely five years after arriving in Paris. The honor was an occasion that called for a big celebration – which is exactly what happened.
Henrietta Malkiel Poynter (1901-1968) was an American journalist and businesswoman. Born in New York City into a family of political and labor union activists, she graduated from Columbia Journalism School in 1922. Malkiel worked as a features and foreign desk editor for several publications including Vanity Fair and and Vogue. She also served as assistant to film director John Houseman. Malkiel married Nelson Poynter in 1942 and subsequently served as an assistant program chief for Voice of America. In 1945 she and her husband co-founded Congressional Quarterly, aiming to provide a link between local newspapers and Washington DC’s complex Federal government activities. (ca. 1940 photo)
And what a celebration it was! Looking back from the vantage point of a century later, a feature article published in the July 18, 1925 issue of Musical America magazine gives us a glimpse of the festivities, which attracted a veritable “Who’s Who” of artistic Paris and beyond. Penned by Henrietta Malkiel, not only does the Musical America article recount the boisterous events of the evening, it also touches on the keen interest with which the attendees were observing the state of the arts in the United States.
At the time, Koussevitzky was just one year into his Boston Symphony tenure (which would overlap with his Paris seasons until 1929). At the gala event honoring Maestro Koussevitzky, no doubt Ms. Malkiel proactively solicited guests’ viewpoints concerning the American cultural scene. While most of them likely had more questions than answers on the topic, Malkiel’s article gives us a glimpse into the mindset of the Europeans as they observed the new adventure that Serge Koussevitzky had embarked upon — and what its long-term significance might be.
[Of course, we know how the story turned out — how Koussevitzky would successfully meld the two musical worlds by bringing new compositions from “Old Europe” to the “New World”; one of those was the Boston Symphony’s commission extended to Florent Schmitt to write his Symphonie concertante for Orchestra and Piano for the orchestra’s 50th Anniversary season, at which Schmitt himself played piano at the Boston premiere in 1932.]
The first page of the score to Florent Schmitt’s Symphonie concertante for Orchestra and Piano, dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Schmitt himself performed the notoriously challenging piano part at the Boston world premiere in 1932.
Either way, Henrietta Malkiel’s Musical America article is an important historical document that gives us a window into a bygone world – a world of incredible musical talent, and one where there was still a sense of “wondering” what the future of music might hold on both sides of the Atlantic. The original article is reproduced here in its entirety, with the full text extracted and presented below it for ease of reading.
The July 18, 1925 Musical America magazine article about the Koussevitzky gala event.
MUSICIANS ABROAD GAMBOL IN KOUSSEVITZKY’S HONOR
By Henrietta Malkiel, Musical America Magazine
Chevalier of the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur.
PARIS, July 7—Boisterous humor in modern music occasionally graces solemn occasions, but it is too often unconscious. The Legion of Honor is undoubtedly a serious institution, but the modernists of Paris, with their proverbial perversity, made it an excuse for revelry. When Serge Koussevitzky was named a Chevalier of the order, composers and musicians gathered to honor him and to show him that they were good enough friends to enjoy a joke at his expense. It was an evening of caricature and slapstick. We saw Serge Koussevitzky in all his moods, in musical portraits for the accepted and unaccepted instruments. There was a line drawing for piano, a watercolor for harps, a charcoal for his favorite contrabass and a somewhat ribald caricature for the player-piano.
Master of Ceremonies: Henri Casadesus (1879-1947) …
The conférencier, Henri Casadesus, who in his more serious moments is the head of the Society of Ancient Instruments, played the court jester and mocked everybody from André Messager, whose speech of welcome did not predict the merriment that was to follow, to Mr. Koussevitzky and the celebrated artists who filled the hall.
Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) was there …
The program began with a piece by Arthur Honegger for trombone, with Alfred Cortot at the piano. It pictured the regret of the composer that he could not be there, in plangent tones, and then described the clowning and gaiety which he would miss.
Paul Dukas (1965-1935) was there …
Paul Dukas confided to the piano loud protestations of welcome and pompous assurance of the importance of the occasion, mingled with sly slapstick and the intimation that there was, after all, only a delusion of grandeur. It was entirely entre nous, of course, and so we must admit that to our friends we are not really so important.
Albert Roussel (1946-1937) was there …
Albert Roussel, a shy short man with a horror of being conspicuous, presented a facetious vignette for bassoon and contrabass, which revealed a sly humor and a telling irony which the little man who sat stroking his little beard did not even suggest.
The Satirical Harps
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was there …
The curtains were drawn to allow the orchestra to prepare—or so the conférencier predicted. A piano began in burlesque of the grand symphonic manner to bang out a ribald caricature, almost a Coney Island ballyhoo. It finished with a challenging bravado, and there was revealed Serge Prokofieff, his pale red head bent over the keyboard, pumping away at a player-piano.
Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961) was there …
Then there was a celestial avalanche of harps, which caused Francis Macmillen to interrupt festivities with a cry of “So this is Heaven!” Carlos Salzedo played his idyllic conception of Serge Koussevitzky, and Roland-Manuel and Raymond Charpentier demonstrated in harp quartets that even so gentle an instrument can be satirical.
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986) was there …
Alexandre Tansman paid the respects of Poland in a piano solo. Félia Litvinne, a famous Brünnhilde, sang two Russian folk-songs, and Paul Le Flem presented a quartet.
Then Mr. Casadesus explained that there was to be a great tribute. A little girl in England had written a letter of appreciation to Mr. Koussevitzky, and a clarinet piece. Mrs. Ernest Newman had to pronounce the name, which French lips could not manipulate, and to decide that the child was twelve years old.
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) composes a carol in honor of Serge Koussevitzky …
After the naive solo there was a call for volunteers. A chorus was formed to sing a carol to Koussevitzky. The composer was anonymous, but it was whispered about that Germaine Tailleferre disclaimed all responsibility for it.
Florent Schmitt (1870-1958) and tenor Charles Hubbard were there …
The singers, however, proudly announced their names. Henri Casadesus was the soloist, and in the chorus were Germaine Tailleferre, Madeleine Grovlez, Carlos Salzedo, Maurice Ravel, Florent Schmitt, Albert Roussel, Félia Litvinne, Bérthe Bert, Nadia Boulanger, Serge Prokofieff, Alfred Cortot and Marie Miller.
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was there …
Serge Koussevitzky was the excuse for the festivities. It was he who had to respond to the applause and to kiss each composer on both cheeks; but the event was more than an honor to a famous conductor. It was an international reunion of musicians and composers. They laughed at themselves. They laughed at each other, and for the most part forgot that they had reputations to uphold and remembered only that a spirit of conviviality had to be maintained.
Jacques Rouché (1862-1957) was there …
Jacques Rouché, director of the Opéra, was there, looking like Gatti-Casazza and the director of an opera house, and Maurice Ravel, a very small man, with keen, shrewd eyes and gray hair and a gracious charm, and D. E. Ingelbrecht and Jacques Ibert.
Lazare Saminsky (1882-1959) was there …
The American contingent, too, was well-represented. There were Vladimir Shavitch of the Syracuse Symphony; Lazare Saminsky, who recently conducted his symphony here; Charles Hubbard, an American tenor who sings in Paris; Tina Lerner; Alexander Steinert, the young Boston composer, and William Brennan, manager of the Boston Symphony.
There was much talk of America by those who have been and those who want to go. There is always talk of America in musical Europe. And there were the inevitable comparisons of orchestras, of programs and of prices. The Boston Symphony, Mr. Koussevitzky explained, is a perfect instrument. Its ensemble effects are incomparable. European orchestras cannot achieve such results in the short rehearsal time they are allowed, but there is individual talent and versatility in the European orchestras and a spontaneity which is the substitute for the perfection of the American organization.
André Messager (1853-1929) was there …
America is still the land of promise, but it is no longer the only market for artistic wares. Europe is coming back and reclaiming its own. Most of the artists are preparing to limit their American tours next season to two or three months and tour the rest of the year in Europe and the Near East, which, with the Balkans, is rapidly becoming an important and profitable musical field. Concert fees are almost as high as in America and the overhead is less.
Jacques Thibaud (1880-1953) was there …
In Greece and Rumania artists are paid in American dollars and concerts are sold out in advance, Jacques Thibaud, who has just returned from a tour there and in Africa, says. And in the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean prices are quoted in Swiss francs. The reappearance of the European cities in the musical market means, in part, the solution of the American problem, and the artists welcome the idea of a short, closely booked tour in the United States instead of the scattered dates which they have had to accept for the past few years.
Fair Exchange
Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) was there …
America has done a great deal for the artists who have gone over, but they have done as much for America. Europe has lost the idea that anything can be sold to America. The artists who have come back have told of the musical development of the country and the high artistic standards. They are beginning to take music in America seriously over here and to realize that, although the field is big, the competition is keen. It is a matter of the survival of the fittest, and minor artists no longer talk hopefully of the fortunes to be made across the ocean.
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was there …
The change in attitude in France in the last few years is a reflection of the musical development of America. Its importance from the business angle has long been acknowledged. It is now being accepted as an artistic center. Musical Europe is beginning to look to its laurels.
Paul Le Flem (1881-1984) was there …
This attitude is reflected in all the musical circles in Paris. It was seen at the Koussevitzky soirée, where all the factions, conservative and futurist, met. At the forums of the Revue musicale, where musicians gather to try out the newest of new music, it is noticed, as well as in the green rooms of the concerts and at the musical teas, which inevitably turn to “shop talk.”
Désiré Inghelbrecht (1885-1965) was there …
All the musicians of the world seem to be in Paris now. The season is almost over. They are on vacation, and in their idle moments they forget the solemnity of the causes which they represent and amuse themselves. But they are always musicians, for their very puns, their humor and frivolities take musical form — even if they are not musically significant.