Regarding Magdeleine Brard; another Cortot student!
Magdeleine Brard (7 August 1903 – 3 June 1998), also known as Magda Brard, was a French pianist.
She was the student of Gabriel Faure at the Conservatoire de Paris , won the prize of excellence in 1916 at the age of 13 , and studied Chopin-Liszt under Alfred Cortot . She toured in the US in 1919 , and she toured again in the US in 1922 . She died in 1998 at the age of 95 .
She toured in the United States as a pianist in 1919, sponsored by the French ministry of fine arts. She was possibly the youngest female soloist ever with the Metropolitan Opera when she played there at age 15.
In spring 1922 she gave twenty concerts in France, and returned to the United States for further performances in the autumn of that year. During the 1922 visit, she volunteered as a subject of analysis at the Cleveland School of Character Diagnosis, a clinic interested in the personalities of high achievers. She made piano roll recordings of works by Liszt, Chopin,Schumann, Scriabin, Chabrier, Arensky, Massenet, Fauré, and Saint-Saens in the 1920s;many of which can be heard on YouTube, and performed at New York's Hippodrome in 1925.
She played for Benito Mussolini at his Villa Torlonia in 1926, while she was pregnant with her first child. By the following year, they were understood to be lovers, and he demanded that she forgo further musical performances, and forbid the Italian press from covering any events where she performed. There were rumors that she was a French spy, and she was at risk from others in Mussolini's confidence.
In 1933, she opened a music school in Turin. She was director of the "Accademia della musica" from 1933 to 1943. She was arrested in 1945, but freed after intervention from French diplomats, and returned to Paris after the war. She taught Italian in a private school later in life.
These recordings were made using specialized roll recording equipment designed and built
by Dr Peter Phillips. A video showing how the rolls are recorded can be seen at
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/play-it-again-piano-20170217-4qoif.html?fbclid=IwAR0ps_gG_6lavTn_VQu6--Z1djbJkiMB3Nv2iU311bEGK8i0vMsbpUlHWXg
Berceuse Op. 16 Faure, Gabriel
Fifteen Pieces. No.12 (CacheCache) (Hide and Seek) Pierne, Gabriel
Les Errinyes. Elegie. Op. 10, No.5. Massenet, Jules
Morceaux Caracteristiques. Op. 36, No.7. Valse in E flat Arensky, Anton
Nocturne No.1. Op. 33, E flat minor Faure, Gabriel
Nocturne No.4. Op. 36, E flat major Faure, Gabriel
Nocturne No.4. Op. 36, E flat major Faure, Gabriel
Nocturne Op. 9, No.2.(Nocturne for Left Hand Alone) D flat major Scriabin, Alexander
Paganini Etude No.4. 'Vivo' Liszt, Franz
Pieces Pittoresques No.10. Scherzo Valse Chabrier, Alexis
Tarantelle. Op. 43 in A flat major Chopin, Frederic
Three Etudes de Concert. No.2. La Leggierezza S.144 Liszt, Franz
Valse Caprice No.3. Op. 59 in G flat major Faure, Gabriel