Description

RENÉE HENRIETTE JOSÉPHINE CHEMET (BOULOGNE-SUR-SEINE, 9 JANUARY 1887 – PARIS, 2 JANUARY 1977)

 

 

 

 

She studied with Henri Berthelier at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating in 1902. Chemet toured the world as a violinist for decades, playing a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. In 1904, still a teenager, she was a soloist at the Proms concerts in London, under conductor Henry Wood. In 1907, she toured North America as a violinist with her husband, pianist Camille Decreus, in the company of Emma Calvé. “Madame Chemet is a violinist of great talent”, explained a reviewer who heard her in Hamburg in 1911, “with great skill, splendid technique, and big (rather manly) tone. Her style of playing is eminently French; she sometimes overdoes it by forcing sentiment and cantilène.”

During World War I, when travel was difficult, she gave benefit concerts and performed for the troops in France, and worked as a nurse’s aide; she was awarded the Legion of Honour for her service.

After the war, Chemet was a soloist in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in 1920. In the latter half of 1920, Chemet gave a number of joint recitals with the Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing. In New York, she played at Carnegie Hall in 1921, at Aeolian Hall in 1923, Town Hall in 1927, and at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1925 and 1928. Throughout the 1920s, she made many recordings, and appeared regularly on radio. “Radio paves the way,” she told a New York Times interviewer in 1930. “It popularizes tunes, the great symphony orchestras, the talented singers and instrumental soloists that would be ignored without this medium.” She played Maud Powell’s violin on the radio in New York in 1925.

Chemet traveled through Hawaii to Japan in 1932, to perform with pianist Anca Seidlova and koto player Michio Miyagi. Later that year, she performed with the BBC Orchestra.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Adoration (Felix Borowski) Waldemar Liachowsky (piano) Victor 6473 C-29424
2. Because (d’Hardelot) Anca Seidlova (piano) HMV 1231
3. By the Waters of Minnetonka (Thurlow Lieurance) Waldemar Liachowsky (piano) Victor 1015-A
4. Capriccio all’antica (Sinigaglia) HMV DA 813 7-7954
5. Dancing Doll Miss Delcourt (piano) HMV 811
6. El Pano Moruna (De Falla) Miss Delcourt (piano) HMV 814
7. Gypsy love song (Victor Herbert) Anca Seidlova (piano) Victor 1402-A
8. Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso (Saint-Saëns) HMV DB 887 Cc 6789, Cc 6790
9. Jota (De Falla) Miss Delcourt (piano) HMV 814
10. Kiss me again (Victor Herbert) Anca Seidlova (piano) Victor 1402-B
11. Love’s Garden of Roses (Haydn Wood) Anca Seidlova (piano) Victor 1328-B
12. Oh Promise Me (R. De Koven) Anca Seidlova (piano) Victor 1328-A
13. One Little Dream of Love (Westell Gordon) Harry Kaufman (piano) Victor 1132-B
14. Romance, op. 9 (A. D’Ambrosio) Waldemar Liachowsky (piano) Victor 6473 C-30001
15. Romance, op.40 – 1ère partie (Beethoven) HMV DB760 407912
16. Romance, op.40 – 2e partie (Beethoven) HMV DB760 407913
17. Rondo (Mozart-Kreisler) Victor 6497 C-31812
18. Rose in the Bud (Dorothy Forster) Harry Kaufman (piano) Victor 1132-A
19. Serenade (Pierne) Anca Seidlova (piano) Victor 1302-B
20. Serenade (Toselli) Anca Sidlova (piano) Victor 1302-A
21. Sonata in E major Adagio and allegro (Handel) Victor 6497 C-31809