Lesser-Known Composer of the Month: Pauline Viardot

Wait, Who?

Pauline Viardot, née García, was the daughter of the singers Manuel García and Joaquina Sitches and the sister of the celebrated mezzo Maria Malibran and the younger Manuel García.  Her early musical instruction was from her father and after his death her mother continued her training.  In addition to her vocal training, she studied piano with Meysenberg and Liszt and composition with Reicha.

She made her operatic debut at 18 and was famed for her remarkable range, versatility, and dramatic capabilities, although some found her voice unpleasantly rough. She retired from the stage in 1863 and settled in Baden-Baden, where she built a small opera house where her she, her pupils, and her children could perform in private concerts. Like her brother, she gave voice instruction based on the methods of her father.

Viardot never considered herself a composer and seldom published her works, although Schumann and Saint-Saëns among others thought highly of her talents, and she exerted a powerful influence on the roles that were created for her.

After her husband's death she returned to Paris, where she presided over an influential salon that helped launch the careers of Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Fauré, and Massenet.

The bulk of Viardot's work consists of the roughly one hundred songs she wrote for voice and piano, only a few collections of which she published.  She also wrote seven stage works, primarily operetta, of which Le dernier sorcier recieved several public performances.  She wrote considerably fewer instrumental pieces, mostly for piano, piano 4-hands, or violin and piano. 

She was also active as an arranger, creating numerous vocal transcriptions of instrumental works of other composers, including a set of Chopin's mazurkas (of which he thought highly), Schubert's waltzes, and Brahms's Hungarian dances.