# André Mathieu (Continued)



## itywltmt

As we resume our story, Mathieu dies in 1968 a few months shy of his 40th birthday. Mathieu is a forgotten, and institutionally ostracized figure until...

The 1976 Summer Olympics

The first time that I heard Mathieu's music was during the *Olympic Games of 1976*, held in Montreal. Vic Vogel spent months assembling Mathieu's works, some of them having been left to barkeeps across the city - _as payment for bar tabs!_ Vogel believed that Mathieu's unique sound was appropriate not only to highlight specific official ceremony moments, but also to give Mathieu's music solid airplay, in the hope that it would finally be recognized.

Here are two specific adaptations: the first is Mathieu's _Berceuse _(Lullaby), which became one of the themes for the *March of the Athletes* (First, Mathieu's original piano version, then Vogel's arrangement).






The second is the *Olympic Cantata* which - as I remember - was sung during the initial lighting of the cauldron at Montreal's Olympic stadium. It is preceded by a short "Olympic chime", which was used prior to medal ceremonies.






The main theme of the Cantata is that of the second movement of his_ Fourth Piano Concerto_.

(In my mind, the Fourth concerto is Mathieu's crowning achievement, a surprisingly more modern work but still clearly influenced by the Iimpressionists and late Romantics.)

Here is a complete performance with Alain Lefèvre accompanied by l'Orchestre des Concerts de Frence under the direction of Jean-Philippe Tremblay:

http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/inde...yByItemId&bibliographyId=60238&recordTypeId=8

Mathieu created a separate piece for piano and orchestra based on this movement, which he called _Rhapsodie Romantique_. (Click here for a performance of Rhapsodie Roimantique.)

Twenty Five Years Later

Surprisingly - or not so surprisingly - Mathieu's music did not get the renewed attention everybody expected after the Olympics. It did not help that the Olympics in Montreal usually have a negative connotation (mostly due to the cost overruns and unflattering events that surrounded their preparation)…

From what I have read, no single theory prevails as to why Mathieu got so little love from his countrymen. It could be an old guard/new guard issue - Mathieu representing an image of Quebec before the _Quiet Revolution_ and the Quebec creative movement loosely known as _le refus global_. In that context, Mathieu's works can be viewed as anachronistic and somewhat retrograde.

But there could also be something even more ugly, more sinister at play here. Call it _shame_, for lack of a better word.

According to pianist and broadcaster *Alain Lefèvre*, he first heard Mathieu played at the piano by a nun who taught at his music school. He was entranced by the music, and politely inquired about it. The nun, as quickly as she identified the composer, simply snapped "And he was a drunk."

Lefèvre, like Vogel before him, went looking for Mathieu's music, and became convinced that he had a mission - that of giving life to Mathieu's compositions. Nearly 35 years after his death, some of Mathieu's old flames and acquaintances came out of the woodwork, and provided Lefevre with a good number of missing manuscripts of his works, and an acetate recording of Mathieu playing his music. From liner notes of one of Lefèvre's recordings, here is the description of one such - momentous - encopunter:



> After [a Lefèvre] concert, as the audience was leaving, a couple lingered behind, the woman apparently wanting a word with Lefèvre. With much emotion, she told him she knew André Mathieu, and that she was even his last sweetheart. The woman then handed him a bag, telling him it should rightly be his. [...] In the bag, between two sheets of brown cardboard, were five [acetate] records with André Mathieu's handwriting on the center labels. The ten sides contained four works: Laurentienne (1946), the Sonata for violin and piano (1949) and excerpts from the 1949 [Piano] Trio. The huge surprise, though, was on the last four sides. There could be no mistake- Mathieu's hieroglyphic handwriting read: *Concerto No. 4*.


Lefevre has recorded many of Mathieu's works for solo piano, piano and orchestra and chamber works. One such work is Mathieu's _piano trio_. The sound clip is preceded by an interview with Lefevre, where he gives more insight on the work, and the apparent negative environment at the time of its composition.

http://www.musiccentre.ca/apps/inde...yByItemId&bibliographyId=64141&recordTypeId=8

To complete this blog, here is a feature produced by _Radio-Canada _entitled _À la recherche d'André Mathieu_. The documentary (in French) provides an overview of Mathieu's life and work through audio archives and interviews.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/audio-vi...CBF/ALaRechercheDAndreMathieu201005102006.asx

_The next installment of *Pierre's Tuesday Blog *will be published, exceptionally, on *Monday January 16th*, to coincide with a noteworthy date and a *This Day in Music History *post._

*January 13, 2012, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will be adding a new montage "Shostakovich & Mathieu" to its Pod-O-Matic Podcast. Read our English and French commentary January 13th on the ITYWLTMT Blogspot blog.*


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