One of the most inspirational artists of the 19th century was the French mezzo of Spanish descent Pauline Viardot (1821-1910). Her dance card was a long one and the list of people she knew reads like a who’s who of the greatest creative minds of her time: Liszt, de Musset, George Sand, Turgenev, Gounod, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Meyerbeer … Fluent in Spanish, French, Italian and English, and clearly pretty competent in Russian, she sang, composed (her oeuvre includes five operas as well as many songs) and taught. And she inspired some great music from the major composers of her day. Saint-Saëns dedicated Samson et Dalila to her (but she declined to sing the role of Delilah because of her age). She created the role of Fidès in Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, a gutsy part and one in which she made quite an impact. One of her party pieces, and a role she sang more than 150 times, was Orpheus in Gluck’s opera Orphée et Eurydice in Berlioz’s orchestration (and he conducted her first performances of the piece). His version was tailored to the voice of Viardot, and she clearly delivered. (Forlane’s recording, using Berlioz’s orchestration, finds Ewa Podles on fine form in the Viardot role.) Charles Gounod wrote his opera Sapho (1851) for Viardot and, though at first the work received only nine performances, it was enough to put the composer on the map – Viardot’s presence among the cast can’t have done any harm! Viardot’s fame and influence was not confined to France; in 1870 (by which time she’d settled in Germany), Brahms persuaded her to sing in the premiere of his Alto Rhapsody, a work he’d written as a wedding present for Julia, the daughter of his friends Robert and Clara Schumann. It merely backs up the belief that Viardot must have had a rich voice closer to contralto than a modern mezzo (her range, too, was considerable). As to her own music, and to prove that she wasn’t just wedded to the voice, try her delightful Violin Sonatina of 1874 where melody is prized over harmony, but which nevertheless conveys a strong and appealing compositional voice.

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