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MONIQUE de La BRUCHOLLERIE
French pianist (1915 - 1973)



Monique de La Bruchollerie studied with Isidor Philipp and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire with a first prize.  She subsequently studied with Alfred Cortot in Paris, Emil von Sauer in Vienna, and Raoul von Koczalski in Berlin.  She performed with Charles Münch  in 1932 and her career was launched.  She worked with Sergiu Celibidache, Eugen Jochum, Herbert von Karajan, Ernest Ansermet and other leading conductors.

Tragically, her concert career came to an end in 1966 as a result of an automile accident in Romania in which she suffered a fractured skull, lateral paralysis, and permanent injury to her right hand.  After that, she devoted herself to teaching.  Jean-Marc Savelli and Cyprien Katsaris are among her pupils.

Monique de La Bruchollerie was a fabulous pianist, She played with power, delicacy, and such musicality.  In her performance of the "Emperor", not a note is lost and the stunning left hand gives many passages new meaning.  Her touch in the Mozart movements is akin to a casting of pearls, the roundness of the notes just too delicious for words.  Her playing of Mozart is proof positive that many play him too fast.  The unhurried appraoch provides a clarity through which his ultimate genius shines brilliantly.  And her Haydn opens new horizins for me in that composer's piano music.

There os also a performance by Monique de La Bruchollerie of the Brahms 2nd piano concerto that will knock your socks off.  Buy perhaps most interesting of all is Monique de La Bruchollerie's Chopin, a mature, French Chopin, to be sure, but beautifully played and convincingly interpreted.



Scarlatti  Keyboard Sonatas


in D minor, K 9 (L 413) "Pastorale"




in E Major, K 20 (L 375) "Capriccio"




Haydn  Piano Sonata 48 in E minor, Hob XVI:34

recorded live in 1962


i Presto



ii Adagio



iii Vivace molto, innocentemente




Mozart  Piano Concerto 20 in D minor, K 466


Bernhard Paumgartner conducting the Camerata Academia des Salzburger Mozarteums

i Allegro
14:12ii Romanze
23:36iii Allegro assai

recorded in the late 1950s




Heinrich Hollreiser conducting the Orchester Pro Musica Wien

i Allegro
14:37ii Romanze
23:03iii Allegro assai




Mozart  Piano Concerto 23 in A major, K 488
Bernhard Paumgartner conducting the Camerata Academia of the Salzburg Mozarteum

recorded in the late 1950s


i Allegro



ii Adagio




Beethoven  Piano Sonata 31 in A major, Op 110

i Moderato cantabile molto espressivo
ii Allegro molto

recorded in 1959




Beethoven  Piano Concerto 3 in C minor, Op 37
János Ferencsik conducting the Budapest National Philharmonic Orchestra

live recording


i
Allegro con brio



ii Largo



iii Rondo - Allegro




Beethoven  Piano Concerto 5 in E♭ major, Op 73 "Emperor"
Leopold Ludwig conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

i Allegro
19:28ii Adagio, un poco mosso
28:10iii Rondo - Allegro

recorded live in 1948




Mendelssohn  "Spinning Song" Op 67~4 from Songs Without Words

recorded live in 1959




Chopin Recital

Nocturne in E major, Op 62~2
05:03  Waltz 11 in G major, Op 70~1 posth
07:14  Waltz 13 in D
major. Op 70~3 posth
09:57  Waltz 16 in E minor 
12:00  Mazurka in C minor, Op 30~
15:22  Ballade 1 in G minor, Op 23




Chopin  Grande Polonaise in E major, Op 22




Chopin  Ballade 4 in F minor, Op 52

recorded in 1947




Chopin  Piano Sonata 3 in B minor, Op 58
iv Finale -Presto non tanto. Agitato




Chopin  Barcarolle in F major, Op 60




Franck  Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra
Jonel Perlea conducting l'Orchestre des Concerts Colonne




Brahms  Waltz , Op 39~6


2 in E major



6 in C major




Brahms  Piano Concerto 2 in B major, Op 83
Rolf Reinhardt conducting the Pro musica Orchester

i Allegro non troppo
16:58 ➢ ii Allegro appassionato
25:38 ➢ iii Andante
37:12 ➢ iv Allegretto grazioso

recorded in 1952




Saint-Saëns  Toccata in F major, Op 111~6




Tchaikovsky  Piano Concerto 1 in B minor, Op 23
i Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
Rudolf Moralt conducting the Vienna State Philharmonia

recorded in 1952



cadenza (1963 video)




Rachmaninoff  Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op 43
unidentified conductor and orchestra




Szymanowski  Theme and Variations in B minor, Op 3




The following videos of Monique de La Bruchollerie are at once interesting and shocking. They demonstrate a marvelous pianist with a curious technique, if I may be permitted the euphemism.  Looking upon the extra finger motions and the resultant tension in the hands and forearms cause me psychic pain.  The finger stretches she proposes to replace hours of practicing scales make me think of Schumann who crippled his hand trying to force his fingers to accomplish something for which they were not designed.  Monique de La Bruchollerie must have been one of those fortunate few whose fingers, hands and arms survived with great success the kind of torture hinted at.  But a frightening percentage of us lesser mortals would long since have developed no end of injury to the delicate physiology of the fingers and hands.

The videos are in French, but those of you who understand may find them worth while.  I encourage everyone to watch the first one.



Monique de La Bruchollerie 1965




Monique de la Bruchollerie - Mozart & Saint-Saëns 1965




For those of you who enjoy murder mysteries, here is my first with a strong musical polemic as background

Murder in the House of the Muse

which is also available as an audiobook.



And this is the more recently published second mystery in the series:

Murder Follows the Muse



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