Irene Scharrer: Her thoughts on Chopin’s Études

After completing my essay on Irene Scharrer’s recording of Chopin’s Étude op.25 no.9, I came across this short pen-portrait included in Modern Masters of the Keyboard written by Harriette Brower and published in 1926 by Frederic A. Stokes.

In interview Scharrer states:

‘As for études – other than those of Chopin – I have only done those of Czerny. But those wonderful Chopin studies! They meet every pianist’s need. There are scale and arpeggio passages, trills, double thirds and double sixths, octaves, chromatics – in short everything one can think of. And best of all, when through their study one is developing one’s technique to the virtuoso stage, one is at the same time learning beautiful works of art than can be used [in] any program. I have frequently given an ‘all Chopin’ program, and love to do it.’

For information, a scale in double thirds is one in which each hand plays two notes simultaneously a third apart: for example, C & E, D and F# etc. ‘Double sixths’ is a scale in which each hand plays two notes simultaneously a sixth apart for example, C & A, D & B etc. Pianists often practise these scales with both hands, but Chopin usually (but not always) demands that the player perform ‘doubles’ with one hand only. These scales can be diatonic or chromatic in their execution.

Irene Scharrer recorded at least 18 examples of Chopin’s Études. I have derived this information from the liner notes of Irene Scharrer: The Complete Electric and Selected Acoustic Recordings issued on APR 6010 and released in 2012 s a part of their ‘The Matthay Pupils’ series. These notes indicate that the discography may be incomplete and is a work in progress. All the ‘electrical’ examples are included in the CD package. Only the acoustically recorded Étude in F minor op.25, no.2 is given on this disc.

Acoustic Recordings

Étude in G flat major, op.10, no.5 (rec. 1909)

Étude in A flat major, op.25, no.1 ‘Aeolian Harp’ (rec. 1912)

Étude in F minor op.25, no.2 (rec. 1912)

Étude in A minor, op.25, no.11 ‘Winter Wind’ (rec. 1912)

Étude in G flat major, op.25, no.9 ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ (rec. 1912)

Étude in G sharp minor, op.25, no.6 (rec. 1915)

Étude in G flat minor, op.10, no.5 (rec.1915)

Étude in E flat major, op.10, no.11 (rec. 1916)

HMV Electric Recordings

Étude in G flat major, op.10, no.5 ‘Black Key’ (rec. 1927)

Columbia Electric Recordings

Étude in E flat major, op.10, no.11 (rec. 1933)

Étude in C minor, op.10, no.12 ‘Revolutionary’ (rec 1933)

Étude in A flat major, op.25, no. 1 ‘Aeolian Harp’ (rec. 1933)

Étude in G flat major, op.25, no.9 ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ (rec. 1933)

Étude in G sharp minor, op.25, no.6 (rec. 1933)

Étude in A minor, op.25, no.11 ‘Winter Wind’ (rec. 1930)

Étude in C minor, op.10, no.12 (rec.1933)

Trois Nouvelles Études, no.1 in F minor (rec. 1933)

Trois Nouvelles Études, no 2 in D flat major (rec 1933)  

Irene Scharrer plays Chopin’ ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ Étude’, in G sharp major, op.25 no.9

I was listening to Irene Scharrer playing some Chopin the other day. One piece that stood out for me was the so-called ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ Étude in G flat major, op.25 no.9.  She recorded this piece for Columbia Electrics on 14 September 1933.  It was released on DB 1348 coupled with the Étude ‘Aeolian Harp’ in A flat major, op.25, no.1 and the ‘Thirds’ in G sharp minor, op.25, no.6.  This was to be her final recording of Chopin’s Études.

Irene Scharrer was born in London on 2 February 1888. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut as a concert pianist was in 1904 when she was only 16: she played Chopin’s Rondo in E flat Op. 16 ‘…with wonderful finish and very remarkable technical skill’.

Irene was to continue her public career until 1958 after which she disappeared from public view. Her final appearance was at a Matthay Centenary Concert held at the Royal Academy of Music when she played the Mozart two-piano sonata in D major, K. 448 with her friend and fellow-Matthay pupil Myra Hess. At the height of her career Scharrer toured in both the United States and in Europe, playing under conductors such a Nikisch and Richter.  She was deemed (by contemporary critics) to lack a powerful pianistic style: she had a sensitive, intimate technique that favoured the Romantic music of the 19th century with Chopin being one of her favourites.  Irene Scharrer died on 11 January 1971.

Étude, op.25 no.9 was composed during the mid-1830s. It was first published by Maurice Schlesinger and later by Breitkopf & Haertel, Leipzig in 1837. The complete op.25 set was dedicated to the German-born Comtesse Marie Catherine Sophie d' d’Agoult (nee de Flavigny). Marie was a French author who often used the pseudonym of Daniel Stern. She had a marriage of convenience to Count Charles d’Agoult in 1827, but she later left him to become Franz Liszt’s mistress. She was to have five daughters by him. Chopin knew the Comtesse when she was living in Paris. It is a matter of speculation as to why he dedicated them to her.

An advert in The Gramophone Magazine (April 1934) insisted that Scharrer’s new record was ‘a treat no music lover can afford to miss.’ Cost of the 78rpm disc was 2/6d. That would be equivalent to about £8.50 at today’s prices which was expensive for only six minutes of music.  The same issue gave a detailed review of the record. It suggested that Scharrer is an ideal player of Chopin’s music. The writer felt that she ‘scores highest of all in many of the Études, helped…by her highly finished [Tobias] Matthay technique’. He considered that she was at her best in the A flat [major] and the G flat [major] studies and that the listener would ‘go a long way without finding a more equal performance of the G sharp minor [Étude].

Not all the nicknames given to Chopin’s Études are universally admired. On the other hand, ‘Butterfly’ or ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ does seem an appropriate name for this graceful and attractive piece. Over and above, it reflects the old myth that a butterfly lives for a single day: its life, like this piece is over in a trice. Butterflies do live longer than a day, but we get the point. Extending the metaphor, one early commentator (James Gibbon Huneker, 1857-1921) suggested that ‘it [has] become the stamping-ground for the display of piano athletics.’ He further adds that ‘nearly all modern (Edwardian and Victorian) virtuosi pull to pieces the wings of this poor little butterfly. They smash it, they bang it, and, adding insult to cruelty, they finish it with three chords, mounting an octave each time, thus giving a conventional character to the close, the very thing the composer avoids.’

Irene Scharrer brings delicacy and control to this delightful Etude, which is the very antithesis of Huneker’s concerns. She manages to execute the continual figuration of a detached octave followed by two octaves with perfection.  Her interpretation, like the insect itself, seems to be ‘floating on a cloud.’

Irene Scharrer can be heard playing the ‘Butterfly’s Wings’ Étude’, in G sharp major, op.25 no.9 on APR  6010. I was unable to find a YouTube version of this recording but check out the Amazon etc for MP3 samples.

Irene Scharrer: Debussy’s ‘Reflets dans l’eau’ and ‘Poissons d’or’

Claude Debussy wrote his first set of Images in 1905 with the second set following in 1907. Set 1 included ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, ‘Hommage à Rameau’ and ‘Mouvement’ whilst Set 2 consisted of ‘Cloche à travers les feuilles’, ‘Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut’ and ‘Poissons d’or’. 

Irene Scharrer recorded Debussy’s ‘Reflet dans l’eau’ and ‘Poissons d’Or’ on 4 March 1924 for the 12” HMV Black Label D914 priced 6/6d (33p). I gave a brief overview of Scharrer’s’ life in a previous posting.

‘Reflets dans l’eau’ has been described by Alfred Cortot have having ‘delicious transparency of chords and florid arpeggios.’ Maurice Hinson writes that this piece requires ‘complete facility’ to express the ‘cascading arpeggios and sweeping figurations.’  Also required is a delicate touch and careful timing.

‘Poissons d’or’ was inspired by a piece of oriental lacquer work in which the composer has provided a ‘glorified description of the scintillating movements of the art-work’s living models. It is in reality a procession of goldfish, captured in the form of a set of variations. Cortot has written that this work ‘which, in the trembling if running water of the lively and clear virtuosity, give the dazzling flight of a gleam – a reflection, then another – a quivering and capricious life, which now hides, now bounds forth, captivated by sorcery and music’.  Hinson notes the ‘floating melodies in thirds, fluid arpeggios and delicate pp passages.’

The Gramophone reviewer writes rather disingenuously that ‘Reflets’ ‘seems to be merely good Sydney Smith’. Smith (1839-1889) was an English composer and pianist living in Victorian England.  Many of his works involve cascades of notes suggesting fountains and torrents, for example, ‘Ripples on the Lake’ and ‘Le jet d’eau’.  However to equate the subtlety of Debussy with this largely sub-Liszt pianism is rather unfair. The reviewer considers that Maurice Ravel is just as unsuccessful with his ‘Jeux d’eau’ and that ‘water is evidently not strong enough vintage for these composers.’  However he regarded ‘Poissons d’or’ has having a ‘strange fascination’ and wondered if Debussy ‘wished to suggest the glitter and waggling tales of these little fishes.’ He states that the piano tone and interpretation are ‘fairly good.’

Listening to Irene Scharrer’s recording today is interesting. Her version of ‘Reflets d’eau’ is nearly a minute shorter than François Joel-Thiollier on Naxos. ‘Poissons’ is only 15 seconds less. I wonder if she paced the former work to fit it onto one side of a 78rpm disc.

Whatever the reason, Scharrer brings a magic to these two pieces that are not diminished by the relatively poor sound quality of these transfers.  This is not a criticism of APR records, however they are the best part of ninety years old.

In 2012 APR records released The Complete Electric and Selected Acoustic Recordings of Irene Scharrer. Both these pieces are presented on CD2 of this set.

Irene Scharrer playing Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau and Poissons d’or can be heard on YouTube. 

Irene Scharrer playing Cyril Scott’s 'Danse nègre'

I was recently given the ‘The Complete Electric and Selected Acoustic Recordings’ of Irene Scharrer as a Christmas present. Much could be written about this stunning release from Appian Publications & Recordings Ltd., however it was one piece that immediately caught my ear - Cyril Scott’s ‘Danse nègre’

Irene Scharrer was born in London on 2 February 1888. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Tobias Matthay. Her debut as a concert pianist was in 1904 when she was only 16: she played Chopin’s Rondo in E flat Op. 16 ‘…with wonderful finish and very remarkable technical skill’.

Irene was to continue her public career until 1958 after which she disappeared from public view. Her final appearance was at a Matthay Centenary Concert held at the Royal Academy of Music when she played the Mozart two-piano sonata with her friend and fellow-Matthay pupil Myra Hess. At the height of her career she toured in both the United States and in Europe, playing under conductors such a Nikisch and Richter.  Scharrer was not deemed (by contemporary critics) to have a powerful pianistic style: she had a sensitive, intimate technique that favoured the Romantic music of the 19^th century with Chopin being one of her favourites.  Irene Scharrer died on 11 January 1971.

The ‘Danse nègre’ must be one of the most recorded of Cyril Scott’s works with more than 20 versions listed in Laurie J. Sampsel’s Bio-bibliography of the composer.  The composer himself issued a number of ‘piano-rolls’ of this work. Irene Scharrer recorded the piece on HMV D84 (78rpm) in 20 September 1915. It was coupled with Frederic Chopin:  Etude op.25 No.6. (which is not included on the APR CD release.)

Cyril Scott wrote his ‘Danse nègre’ Op.58/5 (W89) in 1908: it was dedicated to the composer Norman O’Neill and his wife Adine. The sheet music was published in the same year by Elkin & Co and in 1935 the work was issued in a two piano, 4 hands version.

This brilliant, lively piece owes much to the pianistic styles of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. However, Scott has added a ‘well accentuated rhythmic swing’ and a ‘sparkling’ harmonic accompaniment to his work Leslie De’ath has noted that the title will immediately remind listeners of Debussy’s ‘Le Petit nègre’ in spite of it not being a cake-walk. Interestingly, Scott’s work was composed before Debussy’s! It also reminded me of the opening Prelude from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and the concluding movement of his Sonatine.

I was unable to find any contemporary reviews of Scharrer’s recording of this piece, however Jonathan Woolf reviewing the APR release has suggested that ‘her Cyril Scott piece, ‘Danse nègre’ is wittily vivacious’. In fact I would go beyond this and suggest that it is a stunning performance by a pianist who has shown herself to be competent with the music of Debussy as witnessed by her superb recording of ‘Poisson d’Or’ and ‘Reflets dans l’eau’. Irene Scharrer manages to balance the exoticism of ‘Danse nègre’ with the technical intricacy of the piece and the impressionistic harmonies.

‘Danse nègre’ is recorded on ‘Irene Scharrer: The Complete Electric and Selected Acoustic Recordings’ APR 6010  A large part of this piece can be heard as a sample on this webpage (penultimate track). For a modern comparison I recommend Leslie De’ath on Dutton Epoch CDLX 7224 There is a recording of a piano roll made by Cyril Scott on YouTube.