Though I have long
been interested in the authentic performance
of early music, I had never even come
across the name of Isolde Ahlgrimm before
I read this book. The loss was clearly
mine, but one which I shared with those
much more eminent than myself, as the
quotation on page 2 from Henry Haskell’s
The Early Music Revival indicates
– scant mention of Vienna’s part in
the revival, none at all of Ahlgrimm.
Whereas the work of Wanda Landowska
in championing the harpsichord is well
known, Isolde Ahlgrimm seems to have
sunk into oblivion until now.
Landowska’s philosophy
was to make the harpsichord accessible
to modern ears by playing instruments
built to all intents and purposes like
pianos, with massive metal frames; Ahlgrimm
was performing before World War II on
instruments much more like those produced
in Bach’s time and, therefore, much
closer to those generally preferred
today. Landowska’s inheritance was continued
well into my own musical ken by the
likes of Rafael Puyana, the covers of
whose Mercury recordings depicted the
monster instruments on which he performed.
One of my greatest surprises when I
sold off my LP collection was to be
offered more for a Puyana recording,
which I had not valued at all highly,
than for any of my other prized recordings;
clearly there is still something of
a cult following for the monster harpsichord.
Landowska was on the
‘right’ side in World War II; forced
to flee Paris in 1940, her recordings
were issued by RCA in America and its
HMV associate in the UK. Ahlgrimm remained
in Vienna throughout the war – her husband
was even investigated afterwards for
his Nazi associations – and was not
discovered by any recording company
until Philips, then a relatively new
enterprise, recorded her in Bach’s harpsichord
works in the early 1950s.
The great strength
of the book is that it is written with
two types of reader in mind – the general
reader who will be interested in the
biographical details of Ahlgrimm’s life
and work and the specialist looking
for more information about, for example,
those Philips recordings. So as not
to complicate the issue for the general
reader, almost half the book consists
of appendices of more specialist interest.
Thus, her discography for Philips and,
later, for other smaller companies,
is itemised in Appendix I with recording
dates, catalogue numbers, etc.
Much of the book describes
the Concerte für Kenner und
Liebhaber which Ahgrimm gave before
and after the war. The title was taken,
as explained on p.55, from CPE Bach,
hence the antiquated spelling of Concert
for the more usual Konzert. Once
again, the details which would interest
the general reader are given in the
main body of the text, including the
argument caused by her husband which
led to the concerts having to be moved
from the concert hall to their private
apartments, whilst the performers at
those concerts are itemised in Appendix
II.
What a distinguished
group those performers were: Rudolf
Baumgartner, Alice and Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
Eduard Melkus, Paul Angerer ... how
could I recognise the names of these
distinguished associates and not know
that of Ahlgrimm herself?
The book is well written,
with sub-headings for quite short sections
within chapters to help the reader navigate.
Though the author is Australian and
the publishers English, the spelling
is mid-Atlantic with, for example, licence
serving as the spelling for both noun
and verb. Occasionally I took issue
with inconsistencies in the translation
of German words: the Concerte für
Kenner und Liebhaber are variously
translated as "for Connoisseurs
and Dilettantes" (p.10) and, much
more helpfully, "for connoisseurs
and amateurs (in the sense of non-professional
yet discriminating music lovers)"
(p.55). ‘Dilettante’ gives quite the
wrong impression, as the word is now
generally used.
The general reader
will be interested in the way in which
Ahlgrimm came to influence those distinguished
successors, but probably more interested
in the ways in which her life was shaped.
Had her mother not prevented her travelling
to Paris to study with Landowska (p.9),
would she have become another advocate
of the monster harpsichord? Perhaps
not: the book indicates how the playing
style of the eminent harpsichordist
Ralph Kirkpatrick – he of the Kirkpatrick
numbers for Scarlatti – was shaped as
much by what he rejected of Landowska’s
teaching as by what he absorbed from
it.
What, too, if Ahlgrimm
had not met, in Frinton on Sea of all
unlikely places, and been befriended
by Juliette Matton Pain-Parré,
a member of the Dolmetsch circle, who
gave her much encouragement? (pp.35-6).
Even more important
was Ahlgrimm’s relationship with Erich
Fiala, whose collection of early instruments
gave her access to the two harpsichords
on which she performed Bach for Philips.
Watchorn admits that it was difficult
to get Ahlgrimm to speak about their
marriage and divorce, but that has not
prevented his giving a very readable
description of the relationship from
its early days to the gradual breakdown.
He clearly puts his finger of blame
on Fiala’s insistence on being regarded
as a first-class musician when he was,
in truth, only a gifted amateur.
The specialist will
find a wealth of material in the body
of the book and much more in the appendices.
As well as the discography and list
of performers at the Concerte,
there is a wide range of material: correct
fingering, when and how to play ornaments,
etc. Much of this is extremely valuable
to the performer, not least for being
at odds with the technique most of us
learned in playing those interminable
Czerny exercises. There is also an excellent
bibliography, including details of several
of Ahlgrimm’s own writings.
For all the value of
the book academically, however, it is
the personal details that remain in
the reader’s mind. Chief among these
is the account, on page 76, of her encounter
with Captain Henry Pleasants of the
US Army, then on a mission to find a
harpsichord for his wife to practise
on, an encounter with long-term consequences
for both parties. Henry Pleasants, who
was later to become a distinguished
musicologist, and his wife became Isolde’s
life-long friends. The episode, following
hard on the heels of the account of
Erich Fiala’s encounter with Richard
Strauss, reminded me of the more famous
chance encounter with an American officer
which led to the composition of one
of Strauss’s last compositions, the
Oboe Concerto.
‘Early’ music has,
of course, diversified considerably
since Ahlgrimm’s time. Her own recordings,
listed in the discography, of the likes
of Cabezon, Byrd, Sweelinck, Frescobaldi,
etc. (Eterna 826312, p.167) took the
boundaries back to a time earlier than
Bach and Handel. (The use of the form
Händel in the book is faintly
irritating – it isn’t even pedantic,
since Handel himself dropped the umlaut
when he moved to England.) And, though
most of the emphasis in the book is,
quite properly, on her harpsichord performances,
it was Ahlgrimm’s fortepiano renditions
of Mozart that came first, as Watchorn
makes clear.
Nor have we yet properly
absorbed the lessons which Ahlgrimm
taught. Even now debate continues about
whether modern equal temperament is
suitable for Bach’s Well-tempered
Klavier, an issue on which Ahlgrimm
long ago made a rational decision. Peter
Watchorn’s interest in this matter is
far from being solely academic, since
he has himself recently controversially
recorded the 48 on the pedal-harpsichord
in a tuning which reputedly sounds sweet
in every key. (Book I on Musica Omnia
0201, a Musicweb Recording of the Month
– see review.)
As Watchorn notes,
performances of Bach on the piano seem
to be coming back into fashion, an observation
borne out by developments since the
book was written: Richard Egarr’s recent
harpsichord recording of the Bach Well-tempered
Klavier has almost been swamped
by piano recordings of that work. I
must also admit to a personal shortcoming,
in that, though a strong advocate of
the harpsichord, I have yet fully to
come to terms myself with the fortepiano.
Watchorn rounds off
his account of Ahlgrimm’s career by
speculating on what might have been
if she had received the kind of support
that Leonhardt and Harnoncourt received
(p.161) – a piece of speculation which
I found as intriguing as I found the
book overall to be informative and readable.
The Index is fairly
comprehensive, but I was unable to find
easily the page reference that I was
looking for concerning Ahlgrimm’s views
on modern equal temperament and the
Well-tempered Klavier, though
I looked in all the likely places –
no entries for equal temperament,
mean-tone, temperament,
well-tempered or Werkmann
to be found there.
Just one final thought:
considering that this is quite an expensive
book, the general reader who is not
likely to be interested in the appendices
will be paying for half a book. That
apart, I can recommend the book to generalists
and specialists alike. Watchorn has
whetted my appetite enough for me to
wish to hear some of Isolde Ahlgrimm’s
performances, contemporary as they were
with the Karl Münchinger mono LP
recordings of Bach and Vivaldi which
now sound very dated. Could the book
not have included a sampler CD? Perhaps
Philips will oblige instead, with some
reissues?
Brian Wilson
