Description

MADELEINE (MARTHE, MARIE) DE VALMALÈTE (JULY 28, 1899, MONTREUIL (SEINE-SAINT-DENIS, AT THE TIME SEINE), DIED AUGUST 2, 1999, MARSEILLE)

 

 

 

 

A pupil of Joseph Morpain and Isidor Philipp, Madeleine obtained a 1st prize from the National Conservatory of Music in Paris at the age of 14. She won another first prize at the Isidor Philipp competition the following year. Writing to the latter to congratulate him on having developed such a talent, Saint-Saëns will say of her, after a performance of his Danse macabre: “virtuosity completely achieved, only the music remains”. One could not better describe her playing, as poetic as it is vigorous. After the First World War, she began an international career as a concert performer and played under the direction of Gabriel Pierné, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Arturo Toscanini, while she rubbed shoulders with Gabriel Fauré, Ravel, Jacques Thibaud, Ninon Vallin, Lotte Lehmann and Yehudi Menuhin.

In love with the South of France, she moved to Marseille in 1926 and founded a piano school there. From 1949 to 1961, invited by Alfred Cortot, she taught at the Normal School of Music in Paris. At the same time, in 1955 she created a competition for piano lovers and traveled all over France to preside over sessions in many cities. In 1962, she moved to Grenoble where she taught until 1974 at the Regional Conservatory of Grenoble, directed at the time by Éric-Paul Stekel, then by André Lodéon. She then returned to her beloved city of Marseilles where she continued to teach privately while giving a few recitals (Liszt Salle Gaveau in 1986, Chopin’s 24 Studies…), because she retained an extraordinary dynamism and technique until a very advanced age. In 1992, she still wanted to “delight with Mozart” and played four of his Sonatas for a final recording (private edition).

The pianist Idil Biret, who met her in 1946 in Ankara, left a moving account of her elegant playing as well as the encouragement received during her musical training in Paris. She evokes her musical intelligence and her inspiration during recitals given each year in Paris at the Salle Gaveau.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

Polydor, Berlin 1928 

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin, Pleyel piano Polydor 618577

Prélude: 1535 bk

Fugue: 1536 bk

Forlane: 1537 bk

Rigaudon: 1538 bk

Menuet: 1539 bk

Toccata: 1540 bk

Liszt: Arabesques Russes, S.250 – 1. The Nightingale (Romance, after Alabiev) Polydor B7084 1546½ bk I

Mussorgsky: Gopak Polydor 95175-B 1544 bk I

Prokofiev: The Love for Three Oranges, Op.33 – March (Prokofiev) Polydor 95175-B 1544 bk I

Rachmaninoff: Morceaux de Salon, Op.10 – 3. Barcarolle Polydor 1543 bk I

Ravel: Jeux d’eau Polydor 90032 1547½ bk I

De Falla: El Amor Brujo – 8. Danza Ritual del Fuego Polydor 90033 1548½ bk I

Debussy: Feux D’Artifice (Preludes Bk. II) Polydor 90033 1542½ bk