Francesco Cavalli Feast online

Glorious strains of Hugues Cuénod streaming off the radio today.  He was singing a role from Francesco Cavalli's Ormindo at Glyndebourne in the 1960's. He was so wonderful I would have pulled  over and parked but that's not safe on the motorway. The clip was part of this week's Composer of The Week feature on Francesco Cavalli. The series runs from  noon and repeats at 2200 on BBC Radio 3 LINK HERE. Five programmes, packed with music. Some Composer of the Week shows are rubbish but this one is extremely good asnd was made specially in 2008 to go with Cavalli's La Calisto at the Royal Opera House.This is the first repeat. Fabulous music, beautifully chosen. Clear your head from the Proms a bit and imagine back to 17th century Venice.

Hugues Cuénod and the art of singing

"I don't know if the world is farce but it is true that I always like to laugh and be surrounded by funny and imaginative friends. At the same time, all that I retain in my life is directly connected to those solemn moments like singing the Evangelist....and then the amusing things. I forget everything that is boring or puritanical, I think that nothing in life is really serious and that one must go through life as best one can, without thinking oneself important"

In wit often lies wisdom. Hugues Cuénod didn't have a booming, imposing voice but he used it intelligently. A piano doesn't play itself, nor a violin. Same too with voice. Physically muscles produce sound but what turns sound into art is the soul of the person within. Often we hear technically proficient voices but if the lights aren't on inside, so what?  Real singers whatever their level, aren't machines.

Hugues Cuénod shows what makes a true artist. He didn't make his Met debut til he was 85 but the Met wasn't the centre of his world. Paris was, or perhaps London, but in his heart, maybe he never really left Vevey in Switzerland where he was born and died 108 years later, adored by the local townsfolk. This the same young man who brought Monteverdi, Cavalli, medieval and baroque singing into the 20th century. He was one of the greatest Bach interpreters and  knew every composer, performer and significant artist in his time from Stravinsky onwards.  He mixed with high society, yet never let it go to his head. First and foremost he was an artist, with a sense of wonder and adventure. That's perhaps why he sang Krenek's Jonny spielt auf in 1928 when it was still edgy. When he did Bitterweet with Noel Coward they both knew how close it sailed to the wind with its gay undertones. And he was happy to be part of the 30's crooner duo Bab et Babette.

What else can singers today learn from Hugues Cuénod?  "I would say first of all to take music seriously and not try to advance too quickly......Above all, I believe it's necessary to acquire extra-musical culture and to profit by having other activities of a refined nature". He was working on Ravel Don Quichotte à Dulcinée with a young man. "I told him to go look at (a painting by Daumier) for half an hour so he could understand why his interpretation was not satisfactory.....That's the kind of advice I'd like to give. Go to museums, read, don't restrict yourself by working only on your music and your exercises. Take half your time for study and use the other half to see the world...Al that is of the utmost importance for having a balanced and interesting life."

"I am content with little, and turn to advantage all the tiresome things  that happen to me.  I  remember uniquely the good moments of my life, and I believe that my existence could be summed up by a completely secular trinity : the gift of music, the gift of idleness and the gift of being kind and agreeable with my friends"

Hugues Cuénod 1902-2010

Hugues Cuénod died on December 3rd, aged 108. He knew everyone from Mary Garden (Debussy's muse) to Heinz Hollinger and many young singers too. He socialized with princesses and superstars, but it never went to his head. Elegant proportion one could say. Perhaps that's why he kept his mind sharp until the end. In Chinese there's a saying, someone knows how "to be a person". He was one, not fooled by circumstance. Bizarrely, I kept thinking of him on Monday and spent hours listening to his music late into the night. I didn't know the news til I came home late on the 7th.

Cuénod deserves a big tribute. Later I will do a piece with new pictures, so please come back to this site. Click on the search button at right, several clips and other bits about him.

In the meantime, this is what I wrote on his birthday last June.


Aged 10, Hugues Cuénod attended a concert celebrating Camille Saint-Säens's 78th birthday. Saint-Saëns played  piano with Ignace Paderewski,while Felia Litvine sang. That was 1913. This weekend, Hugues Cuénod reaches his 108th birthday. He still lives in Vevey, in Switzerland, where he was born. He's frail now, sleeps a lot, but still has his wits about him.

Cuénod's famous in the Anglophone world because he made his debut at the Met in his 80's. But the Met isn't the world. Cuénod trained in Vienna and Paris in the 1920's, singing whatever amused him - operetta,  Mozart, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf in 1928, and "Negro spirituals" which he learned from a black American tenor, and recorded in the 1930's.

He didn't hear Pelléas et Mélisande til 1922, but knew many of the people involved with it, including both Mary Garden, Debussy's choice for Mélisande, and Georgette Leblanc, Maurice Maeterlinck's mistress, for whom he'd written the libretto. LeBlanc told him a story about how she and Maeterlinck were canoodling in a park when her husband appeared. Maeterlinck shot up a tree to hide. The scene went into the opera!

Cuénod sang Bach with Vincent D'Indy (in French) and knew the severe, "Protestant" Bach tradition in Geneva. He met Nadia Boulanger in 1934, just when she needed a singer to illustrate her teaching of Monteverdi, thus making him the first "modern" Monteverdi specialist. Boulanger was no purist, playing piano rather than harpsichord or fortepiano, and with heavy-handed gusto, but they made Monteverdi exciting and fun.  He also sang Cavalli and other early operas.. Without Hugues Cuénod, the baroque revival of the 20th century might not have happened so quickly..

Yet, as Cuénod cheerfully says, he's never taken life too seriously. Boulanger was notoriously demanding. Igor Markevitch, also a Vevey boy, and friend of both, called her "Herr Doktor" behind her back. Cuénod could defuse situations with his easy, laconic humour.  He, after all was the man who could croon like Jean Sablon so well that he formed a duo with a soprano, called Bob et Babette, to sing French language pop songs. There's a great photo of them in 1937, looking so wholesome and sweet it's almost a joke!

Cuénod also knew  Noel Coward, whom he described to an  interviewer as "an English Sacha Guitry". They did a thing called The Green Carnations which was so openly gay, even Coward was worried how it might go down. Maybe the public didn't twig. When Switzerland allowed gay marriage, Cuénod was one of the first to take advantage, marrying in his late 80's. They're still together, after 40 years.

 Of course, Cuénod knew Stravinsky, their circles connected in many ways. Stravinsky wrote Sellem the auctioneer in The Rake's Progress for him, a short but characterful role, making the most of Cuénod's dramatic strengths. (one of his favourite roles was the Stammerer in Smetana's The Bartered Bride). Everyone in the business went to the premiere, and Cuénod's opera career blossomed better than any agent could have dreamed. That's how he was asked to sing The Captain in Wozzeck at La Scala with Tito Gobbi.

Cuénod also became an enduring fixture at Glyndebourne.. He was also a regular at Aldeburgh, for many years. Britten wanted him to sing duets with Peter Pears, but it didn't work out because their voices and styles were too different. "Harnessing a horse with a steer", said Cuénod, discreetly.
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Photo credit : Charles Sigel

Aldeburgh and Hugues Cuénod

Aldeburgh and Hugues Cuénod -  much deeper connections than you'd think.  Hugues Cuénod, who turns 108 tomorrow (see main posts on him on this site) went to Aldeburgh nearly every year. Britten, of course, had a passion for Monteverdi, Bach, early polyphony, Elizabethan lute songs etc. so naturally they had a lot in common. (If you get to Red House, see Britten's collection of baroque and early music scores). Britten transcribed Bach, folk song and much else: eclectic mixes have been a feature of Aldeburgh since the start. The tradition goes on, with Birtwistle transcriptions of Bach, etc etc. "Montage Collage" is central to the whole idea of Aldeburgh.

Britten loved hosting artists from far away - he was instrumental in helping Shostakovich and getting him established in the West. Fruitful exchange of ideas and it spurred new work. So naturally he wanted to write music he, Pears and Cuénod could perform together. But the two tenors could not have been more different. "Like harnessing a horse and a steer" said Cuénod, diplomatically. This year is Peter Pears centenary, so Aldeburgh is full of him - film, exhibition, talks, walks. And as for me, I'll be celebrating the quirky mélange that has always been Aldeburgh. Right from the start, this frisson has inspired new work, new music, new artists.

Please explore this site, where there's lots on Aldeburgh, Britten, Cuénod, Carter, Messiaen, Aimard, Knussen, Benjamin and connected themes. Look at the photo at the top of this page - also "Aldeburgh" in the sense of eclectic mix. Orchestra of animals, procession to a Chinese Buddhist abbot.  One day I must write more about that place, where there are/were hundreds of things like that. Below a clip from Aldeburgh Music showing why Aldeburgh is such a great experience.

Hugues Cuénod, 108 - Happy Birthday!

Aged 10, Hugues Cuénod attended a concert celebrating Camille Saint-Säens's 78th birthday. Saint-Saëns played  piano with Ignace Paderewski,while Felia Litvine sang. That was 1913. This weekend, Hugues Cuénod reaches his 108th birthday. He still lives in Vevey, in Switzerland, where he was born. He's frail now, sleeps a lot, but still has his wits about him.

Cuénod's famous in the Anglophone world because he made his debut at the Met in his 80's. But the Met isn't the world. Cuénod trained in Vienna and Paris in the 1920's, singing whatever amused him - operetta,  Mozart, Krenek's Jonny spielt auf in 1928, and "Negro spirituals" which he learned from a black American tenor, and recorded in the 1930's.

He didn't hear Pelléas et Mélisande til 1922, but knew many of the people involved with it, including both Mary Garden, Debussy's choice for Mélisande, and Georgette Leblanc, Maurice Maeterlinck's mistress, for whom he'd written the libretto. LeBlanc told him a story about how she and Maeterlinck were canoodling in a park when her husband appeared. Maeterlinck shot up a tree to hide. The scene went into the opera!

Cuénod sang Bach with Vincent D'Indy (in French) and knew the severe, "Protestant" Bach tradition in Geneva. He met Nadia Boulanger in 1934, just when she needed a singer to illustrate her teaching of Monteverdi, thus making him the first "modern" Monteverdi specialist. Boulanger was no purist, playing piano rather than harpsichord or fortepiano, and with heavy-handed gusto, but they made Monteverdi exciting and fun.  He also sang Cavalli and other early operas.. Without Hugues Cuénod, the baroque revival of the 20th century might not have happened so quickly..

Yet, as Cuénod cheerfully says, he's never taken life too seriously. Boulanger was notoriously demanding. Igor Markevitch, also a Vevey boy, and friend of both, called her "Herr Doktor" behind her back. Cuénod could defuse situations with his easy, laconic humour.  He, after all was the man who could croon like Jean Sablon so well that he formed a duo with a soprano, called Bob et Babette, to sing French language pop songs. There's a great photo of them in 1937, looking so wholesome and sweet it's almost a joke!

Cuénod also knew  Noel Coward, whom he described to an  interviewer as "an English Sacha Guitry". They did a thing called The Green Carnations which was so openly gay, even Coward was worried how it might go down. Maybe the public didn't twig. When Switzerland allowed gay marriage, Cuénod was one of the first to take advantage, marrying in his late 80's. They're still together, after 40 years.

 Of course, Cuénod knew Stravinsky, their circles connected in many ways. Stravinsky wrote Sellem the auctioneer in The Rake's Progress for him, a short but characterful role, making the most of Cuénod's dramatic strengths. (one of his favourite roles was the Stammerer in Smetana's The Bartered Bride). Everyone in the business went to the premiere, and Cuénod's opera career blossomed better than any agent could have dreamed. That's how he was asked to sing The Captain in Wozzeck at La Scala with Tito Gobbi.

Cuénod also became an enduring fixture at Glyndebourne.. He was also a regular at Aldeburgh, for many years. Britten wanted him to sing duets with Peter Pears, but it didn't work out because their voices and styles were too different. "Harnessing a horse with a steer", said Cuénod, discreetly.
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So Happy Birthday Hugues Cuénod, and many more to come!
Photo credit : Charles Sigel

Hugues Cuénod sings Wozzeck

......or rather, The Captain. And in Italian. But once you get your head around Tito Gobbi as Wozzeck, you appreciate Cuénod's hyperbright singing. This Captain really is lit by the "unearthly glow of madness", preternaturally high pitched and brittle. Listen to that machine gun staccato ha ha ha. The laugh of a psycho.. This Captain is madder than Wozzeck, madder than the Doctor, but he holds a position of authority and orders others about.  It's Rome, 1954, and Cuénod is only 52, in his prime.

Hugues Cuénod, 107

Please note, I'll be doing LOTS more about Cuénod in 2010 including a few exclusives you won't find anywhere else !!!!!!! So please bookmark this site, subscribe and keep coming back.  HERE is the latest post. Celebrate Hugues Cuénod who turned 107 on 26th June. Read the interesting blog (in French) Comme Il vous plaira. by Charles Sigel. To read the post click HERE
It's lovely, scroll down by one message to get to the Letter to Hugues Cuénod. Cuénod knew everyone in French (and other) music circles, often close enough to tutoyer.

Here is a clip of a recording made in 1937. The pianist is Nadia Boulanger. The recording was possibly made in the home of the Princesse de Polignac. It's like listening in on another, private world. The princess, who was an heiress of the man who invented sewing machines, was a great patron of the arts. She held soirees in her palace, attended by the likes of Poulenc, Ravel, Stravinsky, and many others, where many premieres were played sometimes dedicated by one of the group to another. These were private, so most were not recorded, so what survives is precious.

How fresh and young Cuénod sounds. No wonder he was still singing into his mid 80's. The other singer is Paul Derenne, also a tenor. I don't know who plays the violin as I thought the princess was a pianist.