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His is a name that doesn’t get bandied about too much these days, but this past weekend I had the great pleasure to play a concert conducted by Philippe Entremont. He was a musical icon of my youth in the 60’s, and it was an exciting opportunity for me to work with him, and an even greater pleasure to find the experience so immensely enjoyable. We did the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and the Bizet Symphony in C, sandwiched around a new arrangement of the Saint-Saens Clarinet Sonata for clarinet and strings (which actually worked quite well). I do not know when I have played a concert where there was such an immediate musical and emotional connection between conductor and orchestra. This is not to say that he was not insistent on things being the way he wanted them, because he was. It’s just that everything was always constructive, and he would positively glow when a passage would come together the way that he wanted it to.I never heard him play live, but I wore out the records, particularly the Saint-Saens 2nd and 4th piano concertos with Ormandy. I went back and forth about getting an autograph, but finally I decided that he was such a idol to me in my youth that I had to give it a shot. I wasn't sure that an appropriate moment would present itself, but I dug out a copy of his debut album, a Chopin recital issued in 1957 on Epic, and I took it with me to rehearsal. As luck would have it, when it came time for the Saint-Saens, the clarinet soloist was nowhere to be found. The contractor asked Entremont if he would like to touch up some spots in the Bizet while we waited, to which he replied “No, we take a break”. He was sitting by himself and I took the opportunity to talk to him and ask him to sign the album for me. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but he could not possibly have been nicer. He examined the front of the album as if it had been a long time since he had seen it. When he turned it over to sign it, he looked at the program and said, with a sly smile, “wow, I played all of this?” He went on a bit about how this album had been recorded by Philips, but issued in the US by Columbia on the Epic label. He said that he then signed with Columbia, making it a curious coincidence that in the US he was always on Columbia. It was just a brief moment in time, but it was one that I will never forget. Maybe as I get older I have learned not to take the little moments for granted.
As best as I can tell, the inscription reads “In nice memories and l’amical”. “l’amical” seems to be an idiom for “friendly gathering” or something of the like. Someone with a greater knowledge of idiomatic French than I (which is to say, any knowledge) could surely nail it down a little better. No matter, it’s something that I will always treasure.
Edits: 10/13/14 10/13/14 10/13/14Follow Ups:
Like others, I didn't really track Entremont's career. I know that he conducted in New Orleans for a time - I happened to be, in all places, Bogalusa, La and my host was mentioning that they were thrilled to have him there. Reviewers seemed generally dismissive of his work but someone must of loved him as he made a lot of recordings in his day.
Thanks for sharing.
I haven't heard him conduct, and I haven't heard him play live, but his Columbia recordings had consistently hard, shallow tone and not much of interest (to me) concerning interpretation. Remembering that Graffman, Fleisher, Serkin, Cziffra, Rubinstein, Arrau, Bolet, Moravec, Richter, Gilels, Argerich, Casadesus, Backhaus, Wild, Gulda, Horowitz, Kempff, and many other fine musicians were active concertizing at the time, I can't think of Entremont as a go-to guy for anything that he recorded.
While I have learned to make my own decisions....you just don't have time to hear everyone play everything and it didn't seem worth the effort to explore his work.
That's wonderful, Chris. As for the inscription, he seems to be wavering between English and French. My best guess for his parting words are "bien amicalement", roughly, "best wishes", perhaps shortened to "b. amicalement". A typical way to end an informal note.
Bien amicalement,
Roy
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Born in '34, he recorded that Chopin album for Philips when he was 22.
Looks like 'in nice memories and Hannah, whoever the mysterious Hannah might be......"
That's excellent! He sounds like a really nice guy.
I remember one of my very first LP's was Entremont in the Grieg Concerto, with Ormandy, and Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (piano version) - I loved it, but I kind of lost track of Entremont's career later on. I believe he conducted in Denver for a while?
I never heard him perform, but I used to wait on him (in a restaurant that is) when he was the musical director of the New Orleans Symphony, and he was always very pleasant and polite.
It is odd, that he seems to have quietly walked away from the big-time concert stage in the '70's, which is right about when he started conducting. He was in Denver for a while and was also the Music Director of the New Orleans SO.
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