Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - Theses
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ItemThe Reception of Dmitri Shostakovich in France, 1934–2000( 2022)In 1989, the French record company Le Chant du Monde sponsored a year-long festival dedicated to the music of the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). Coinciding with the bicentennial of the French revolution and the restructuring of the Soviet Union, this ‘Annee Chostakovitch’ included the French premiere of the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1932), French releases of earlier Soviet recordings of Shostakovich’s music, and a revival of the composer’s fifteen symphonies. The festival came more than fifty years after Shostakovich’s music was first heard in France: when his popular song ‘Au-devant de la vie’ became the anthem of the Front populaire movement in 1930s Paris, and his Fifth Symphony was promoted by French Communists in Paris in June 1938. This thesis maps the trajectory of Shostakovich’s music in France from late 1934—the year in which his music first gained notoriety in Paris—to the end of the twentieth century. Using ideas from reception theory, it interrogates a wide cross-section of press and other print sources from Paris and the French provinces containing critical discussions of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies, his opera Lady Macbeth, and his song ‘Au-devant de la vie.’ In addition to expanding the literature on musical life in France, this thesis complements existing studies of Shostakovich reception in the United States of America, Britain, and Germany. The thesis is structured chronologically in five chapters, preceded by an Introduction and followed by a short Conclusion. It situates critical responses to Shostakovich’s music within France’s evolving political landscape, and suggests that these responses were shaped largely by France’s shifting relations with the Soviet Union, the rising and falling influence of the French Communist Party, as well as trends and preferences in French musical life. I also conclude that writing about Shostakovich’s music throughout the twentieth century served as a means for French critics to articulate their ideas, opinions, and concerns about the USSR.
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ItemThe reception of Dmitri Shostakovich in twentieth-century France( 2015-11-06)This dissertation assesses the reception of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich in twentieth-century France, focusing on the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (1932), and Symphony No. 5 (1937). These works represent artistic responses to the development of Socialist Realism and censorship under the Stalin regime. The research draws predominantly upon primary source material taken from archives at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Association Internationale “Dimitri Chostakovitch”. The results of this study demonstrate how Franco-Soviet relations influenced French critical perspectives on Shostakovich throughout the twentieth century.
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ItemThe influences of Alfred Cortot on the performance, teaching and research-editing of piano music from the Romantic era( 1989)Now that Alfred Cortot has been dead for more than a quarter of a century, one may ask: “Wherein lies the justification in studying the work of yet another dead concert pianist?” Many pianists these days dismiss Cortot as having been inaccurate in his later performances, considering him unworthy of serious appraisal in today’s musical climate of so-called ‘technical perfection.’ This dissertation aims to show that Cortot was more than a fine virtuoso pianist who led his audiences into the sublime with his elucidating interpretations. His contributions to music are felt still today, not only within the ‘milieu’ of French piano playing, but widely across the sphere of western music. There is no doubt that people who heard Cortot perform retain special memories of his playing. Those who studied with him retain a great admiration for his work and continue to spread his ideas through their own students. His recordings and publications are still treasured. But what was it that made him so special? We shall, in the course of this dissertation, examine in his piano playing the tonal qualities and colours, the rubato and characteristic rhythmic figurations which singled him out from others. Throughout all his work, however, one of the very significant features was concerned with the balance between intuitive sensitivity and musicality, that is, the emotional content of the art, and a deep intellectual approach not only to the music, but also to the associated cultural, stylistic, historical and technical backgrounds. This was unusual in musicians of his era. These are qualities which are still relevant today. Cortot remained a student all his life, and much of what he discovered is still being passed on. Certainly he is one of the more controversial musicians this century has seen. Revered by some for the uncanny beauty of his piano playing, for his importance as a recording artist, chamber musician, conductor, teacher, collector of music manuscripts, writer of books and articles on music, editor of working editions for piano students, founder of the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and reformer of the French music education system, he has been otherwise held in notoriety for his alleged collaboration with the Nazi regime in occupied France during the last world war, for artistic licence in his pianistic interpretations, these days deemed by some to be excessive or unstylistic, and for the abundance of technical errors in some of the performances from the later part of his life. The wealth of material concerning Cortot (his recordings, his writings, his collecting and editing activities, the numerous articles, books, references in books and radio programmes concerning him, as well as the wide dissemination of his teaching activities and conducting), justifies an examination of him as a major force in music this century, independent of personal opinion. An indication of his stature is reflected in the fact that, upon the occasion of his death in Lausanne on 15 June 1962 (at the age of 84), extensive obituaries appeared in both The Times and The New York Times, as well as minor reports in other publications such as Newsweeek. The object of this dissertation is not to undertake an exhaustive biographical study of Cortot, since this has already been done in varying detail by several writers (notably his late personal friend and biographer, Bernard Gavoty), but rather, to examine in pianistic terms his contribution in three areas: i) as a performer and interpreter; ii) as a teacher; and iii) as a researcher and editor. Nevertheless, it will be expedient to present in the Introduction a brief overview of Cortot’s life and activities, before considering pianistic details.