Renée Chemet (violin)
The Victor Recordings
Arthur Loesser, Harry Kaufman, Waldemar Liachowsky, Anca Seidlova (pianos, cimbalom), Michio Miyagi (koto)
rec. 1924-32
Biddulph 85065-2 [82]

In my review of the previous release in  this series, devoted to her HMV recordings, I gave a few biographical details about the career of the characterful French violinist Renée Chemet, whose career seemed to peter out in the 1930s. Now comes a disc of her American Victor recordings which range from late acoustics of 1924 to 1932, her last appearance in a commercial studio.

Once more, we are faced with a player of tremendous brio and some questionable stylistic features which hearken back to an older way of putting the music across. Rather like HMV, Victor didn’t entrust her with a complete recording of a Handel sonata, preferring to dole out a mere two movements where we encounter her distinctively nervous, quivering vibrato. Of the two, it’s the Allegro which is the more convincingly played movement – lively and attractive.

Though it was a mark of distinction to be a Victor ‘Red Seal’ artist, the company saw Chemet largely as a purveyor of trifles. Thus, though she recorded the Mozart Haffner Rondo, in Kreisler’s arrangement, it’s rather breathlessly phrased albeit full of flair. The other ‘serious’ items here are arrangements, such as the Haydn Minuet from the Piano Sonata in C, which isn’t an especially successful early electric as it seems to exaggerate her tone as well as to keep Harry Kaufman’s piano buttoned up. Her Mendelssohn Spring Song is played à la salon in see-sawing fashion but Tchaikovsky’s Nocturne, in Arthur Hartmann’s arrangement, suits her better. The French pieces also suit her temperamentally, such as Vieuxtemps’ Sérénité, and her d’Ambrosio is especially ardent.

Yet for every charming, sympathetic recording, such as Pierné’s Sérénade, notable for her subtle rubati, there’s one that will arouse amusement or bemusement. Try Thomé’s Under the Leaves for an example of her sickly on-the-string style or her overwrought vibrato in I Hear You Calling Me. If some elements of her recorded repertoire seem to hearken back to that pioneering American Victor violinist, Maud Powell – I’m thinking of Carry me Back to Old Virginny (ironically a piece Powell didn’t record) – Chemet invariably over-vibrates. In 1929, she recorded two pieces by Victor Herbert. Gypsy Love Song is graced by the fine cimbalom playing of Anca Seidlova though Chemet is again guilty of overplaying her hand via excessive use of vibrato. She plays one piece by the once-famous Reginald de Koven – his name was memorably rhymed with ‘Beethoven’ by Hoagy Carmichael in The Old Music Master – but time was running out for such now-faded trifles and indeed for Chemet. Her last recording was Miyagi (‘The Sea in the Spring’), a recording made in 1932 on the initiative of Japanese Victor – she remained very popular in Japan and made numerous visits there – and first released on HMV. It features the koto of Michio Miyagi himself in Chemet’s arrangement. This double-sided disc lasts 6 minutes and is notable for the straightness of Chemet’s playing – no queasy slides, no glutinous vibrato. Perhaps the repertoire forced her to focus on purely musical matters, the better to convey this evocative and effective piece. Her pizzicati are lovely. It’s a fine way to end this survey.     

Victor’s surfaces were quieter than HMV’s and this is duly reflected in the fine transfers. It’s high time that her recordings were restored in this way and everything here has been handsomely done.

Jonathan Woolf

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Contents
Handel: Violin Sonata No.6 in E I. Adagio II. Allegro
Haydn: Minuet from Piano Sonata in C arr. Hartmann
Mozart: Rondo from ‘Haffner’ Serenade arr. Kreisler
Mendelssohn: Spring Song
Tchaikovsky: Nocturne in C sharp minor arr. Hartmann
Vieuxtemps: Sérénité, Op.45/5
D’Ambrosio: Romance in D, Op.9
Borowski: Adoration
Thomé: Under the Leaves
Pierné: Sérénade, Op.7
Toselli: Serenade, Op.3/1
Bland: Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
Lieurance: By the Waters of Minnetonka
Marshall: I Hear You Calling Me
Bartlett: A Dream
Gordon: Oner Little Dream of Love
D’Hardelot: Because
Herbert: Gypsy Love Song
Herbert: Kiss Me Again
De Koven: Oh, Promise Me
Wood: Roses of Picardy
Wood: Love’s Garden of Roses
Miyagi: Haru no umi (The Sea in the Spring) arr. Chemet