Viardot: Songs

From a prodigiously talented musical family - her father was the great Spanish tenor Manuel García, her brother was a famous vocal teacher in London where Jenny Lind was his pupil, and her sister was mezzo-soprano superstar Maria Malibran (‘La Malibran’) – Pauline Viardot studied piano with Liszt, theory with Reicha, and made her debut as a mezzo at 16. She also inspired a raft of composers from Berlioz to Wagner, Chopin to Schumann and, unsatisfied with all this, had the talent and time to add composition to her raft of accomplishments. Her character must have been bewitching to have made and retained so many distinguished musical friendships. Indeed, it was her friendship with George Sand that led directly to her association with Chopin of whose piano music – according to none other than Saint-Saëns – she was the best interpreter of the time. It’s curious to think that Viardot, only a few years older than the French composer, lived long enough to have recorded. How intriguing to t