Edouard Colonne (Edouard Juda Colonne) was a French
violinist and conductor born (in Bordeaux) on July 23, 1838. He is best recognized as the founder
(actually, co-founder) of the Concerts Colonne and what became known as the
Colonne Orchestra in Paris, in 1873. He
was an orchestral violinist for at least ten years but is now almost
exclusively remembered as a conductor and concert promoter, in the style of
Theodore Thomas. He began his music
studies at age 8, but not on the violin.
He entered the Paris Conservatory at about age 17 but did not study with
any famous teachers there. While going
to school, he played in the orchestra of the Lyric Theatre. In 1863 he won first prize for his violin
playing and had already (in 1858) won first prize in harmony. He was engaged as concertmaster for the Paris
Opera orchestra in 1858 – he was 20 years old.
He also played second violin in the Lamoureux Quartet at the same time –
Charles Lamoureux played first violin. Possibly
(actually, very probably) simultaneously, he also played in Jules Pasdeloup’s
orchestra. In 1867, he came to New York
to play in an orchestra for a newly founded comic opera company; while in New
York, Colonne later led an ensemble called Niblo’s Garden Orchestra which until
now I had never heard of. He returned to
Paris in 1871 and conducted a hotel orchestra for a while. In 1873, he founded – together with a music
publisher – the orchestra that would become the Colonne Orchestra. His concerts became known as the Concerts
Colonne. This name was used until the
1960s – about ninety years. At first,
the orchestra presented its concerts at the Odeon Theatre and later at the
Theatre of the Chatelet. Colonne was
known to champion the music of Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler,
and Camille Saint Saens. It has been
said that Pierre Monteux was Principal violist of the Colonne Orchestra. Other famous players who played in his
orchestra for a time were Julius Conus and Jacques Thibaud. Colonne gave the Paris premiere of
Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony in 1878, the year it was completed. The orchestra toured Spain, Russia, Portugal,
Germany, and England. Among the musical luminaries who conducted the orchestra in performances of their own works were Serge Prokofiev, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Peter Tchaikovsky, Claude Debussy, Edvard Grieg, and Maurice Ravel. In 1892, Colonne became
conductor and adviser at the Paris Opera.
He was 54 years old. In 1907 (one
source says 1906), he was one of the first to record with an orchestra. It has been said that he was hard on his
players. Colonne was a pioneer in that
his program books were the first to include program notes. Perhaps they included advertisements as well
though I’m not at all sure about that. He
died (in Paris) on March 28, 1910, at age 71.
Achille
Rivarde (Serge Achille Rivarde) was a Spanish violinist, teacher, and writer
born (in New York) on October 31, 1865. He
is referred to in various sources as either a British, French, Spanish, and
even American violinist. Although he was
known to concertize in the U.S., he spent most of his time in Europe. He is now obscure but was well-known and
appreciated by many famous musicians of his day. He bore a resemblance to another Spanish
violinist: Pablo Sarasate. Although a
somewhat reliable source states that Rivarde studied with Henryk Wieniawski and
Jose White Lafitte, he would have had to do so privately and before he entered
the Paris conservatory to study with Charles Dancla in 1876, at age 11. Between 1860 and 1872, Wieniawski was in
Russia, then he was in the U.S. (on tour) between 1872 and 1875.
In 1875, Wieniawski started teaching in Brussels and began a tour of
Russia in 1879 during which he became ill, subsequently dying in early
1880. Jose White Lafitte was likewise
unavailable (in Paris) between 1875 and 1889 because he was either touring the
U.S. or teaching in South America. So,
the question is: when would these two violin virtuosos been available to teach
young Rivarde? My conclusion from the
circumstantial evidence is that he studied with these virtuosos while they were
touring the U.S. - between 1872 to 1875 and 1875 to 1876, respectively. Rivarde appears to have graduated from the
Paris Conservatory in July, 1879, at age 14.
The source mentioned above also states that Rivarde studied with Felix
Simon too although it does not say when or where. Felix Simon, concertmaster of the theatre
orchestra in Nantes, France, was Camilla Urso’s first teacher in (Nantes)
France so the possibility exists that Rivarde studied with him there, either
before entering the Paris Conservatory or after graduating. It is also possible that Simon had relocated
to the U.S. by (approximately) 1870 and little Rivarde would have been able to
study with him as a child of four or five.
In any case, at least one music dictionary states that Simon was
Rivarde’s first teacher so my conjecture is probably correct. In 1881, Rivarde left Paris and returned to the
U.S. He was still only 16 years
old. What he did here at that time is
unknown to me. One source says he gave
up violin playing entirely. In 1885, he
returned to France and became concertmaster of the Lamoureux Orchestra. He was 19 years old. The Orchestra had been founded by Charles
Lamoureux just three years previously. In
1891, Rivarde quit his post, possibly to concentrate on touring. In 1893, he and pianist Harold Bauer premiered
Frederick Delius' b minor violin sonata (an early work without number) in
Paris. His London debut came in 1894
and, in 1895, he gave the first English performance of Lalo’s Symphonie
Espagnol, presumably in London. On
November 17, 1895, he made his U.S. debut at Carnegie Hall (New York) playing Saint-Saens’
third concerto. The critic for the New
York Times praised him for his elegant style and beautiful, crisp tone. He was mentioned in The Strad magazine as
having “a superb tone, perfect technique, and great breadth of style.” On November 19, 1895, he played in Toronto,
Canada. On March 3, 1896, he played
Bruch’s second concerto (in d minor) with the New York Philharmonic with Anton
Seidl on the podium. In 1899, he was
appointed violin teacher at the Royal College of Music in London and thereafter
spent most of his time teaching. He
retired from that position in 1936. Among
his pupils are violist and film composer Anthony Collins; violist, violin
collector, and writer Robert Lewin; and violinist and pianist Margaret Harrison. Among his admirers were Carl Flesch, Fritz
Kreisler, and Eugene Goossens. A downloadable audio file of a transcription (Dvorak’s
first Slavonic Dance played by Leonidas Kavakos) which Kreisler dedicated to
Rivarde can be purchased here for about fifty cents. In 1922, Rivarde published The Violin and Its
Technique as a Means to the Interpretation of Music, a small study book on
violin technique. The book is still
available and can be purchased for about $20.00. Rivarde played the 1729 Defauw Stradivarius - being one of the later violins constructed by Stradivari, its back is not made of flamed maple but is quite plain. The violin was later owned by Leonard Sorkin, first violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet. (In contrast to the Amadeus String Quartet, the Fine Arts Quartet has gone through more violists than any string quartet in history - a total of 10.) Rivarde died in relative obscurity (in London)
on March 31, 1940, at age 74. The Second
World War had begun six months previously.
