LVI. BOULANGER, Lili (1893-1918)
Nadia spoke often about this work. Lili was on her deathbed, and basically dictated it to Nadia, à la Mozart to Antonio Salieri, if you take the film Amadeus as truth.
(Here's the reality of that situation: Mozart was indeed commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass by an anonymous benefactor ... the patron turned out to be Count Franz von Walsegg, who was grieving after the death of his wife, and not Salieri disguised as the ghost of Mozart's father ...)
Emile Naoumoff
I met Emile at our Wednesday night analysis class. He was nine years old! We were studying the Mozart C Minor Fantasia (see my post XL) and Nadia chose Emile to play the piece, as we discussed and analyzed it. What a prodigy! He was without a doubt Nadia's favorite and continued his studies with her until her death in 1979.
I have a recording which utilizes a boy soprano, which elicits an even greater sense of chill.
Imagine what music we would have had from her! (as it is, we still have several masterpieces; click on the top link) ...
This is why Nadia decided to devote her life to teaching. She told me that her composition skills were "useless" compared to her little sister.
But I thank God every day that I had the opportunity to study with her for nearly two years.
No comments:
Post a Comment