Janine Weill: 1930 Decca Recordings

A selection of recordings made by French pianist Janine Weill on the Decca label in 1930:
Chopin: Valses Op.64 Nos.1 in D-Flat Major & 2 in C-Sharp Minor
Liszt: Liebesträume No.3 (4:38)
Recorded: May 1, 1930
Granados: Danzas Españolas No.5 (8:45)
Albéniz: Sous le palmier (12:05)
Recorded: April 30, 1930
Debussy:
Clair de lune (rec. April 30) (14:56)
La soirée dans Grenade (19:12)
Jardins sous la pluie (rec. June 11) (23:32)
Children's Corner Suite (rec. April 30 & June 11) (26:47)
Préludes livre I: La cathédrale engloutie (rec. May 1) (40:27)
La plus que lente (45:05)
Born in Paris on January 13, 1897 (not February 1 as has been written in some sources), she was a pupil of Marguerite Long but not Alfred Cortot (though this has been published elsewhere) - she got her 1er Prix in 1915. She ranked amongst Ravel's G Major Concerto's first performers (as should be expected from a Long student, since Marguerite Long, both as a dedicatee and a teacher, was very much concerned with leaving her own stamp on the work).
Weill made a number of recordings for Decca in the 1930s - this clip lacks a few but this is a significant portion and all that I could locate. The playing throughout is marvellous, with wonderful full-bodied tone, terrific timing as regards rhythm and rubato, creative and attentive voicing (note the left hand in the Chopin Waltzes, for example), and transparent textures.
A rather amusing and unusual incident reported in Time magazine:
content.time.c...
Janine Weill died in Clamart on December 7, 1983
The March 13, 1934 illustration here entitled "La pianiste Janine Weill jouant du Schumann à l'Athénée" was drawn by Albert Schmidt; it is housed at the MAH Musée d'art d'histoire, Ville de Genève, a gift from Claude and David Schmidt in 2001.
www.mahmah.ch/...
Many thanks to Frederic Gaussin for providing invaluable information for this posting.
If you wish to support The Piano Files, please consider membership at my Patreon page: / thepianofiles

[@LesQuatreAges]

Che meraviglia!!!!

[@saltburner2]

Please add her to the Wiki list of 20th century French woman pianists - she is not there!

[@musthi-fi]

Vorrei sapere a che intonazione si accordava il pianoforte in quel periodo.

[@saltburner2]

Not only is the playing wonderful, but the restorations are faultless - as good or better than early LPs.

[@НадеждаБогданова-р7э]

Словно на машине времени,перенеслась в другую эпоху,когда и меня ещё не было, и как будто в сказке очутилась. Теперь так не играют-очень понравилось! И рисунок тоже (чей он?-ее или нет? интересно), и то,что запись тихонечко шипит-придаёт ей особый аромат. Благодарю за просвещение и доставленное удовольствие! 4.11.2023. Всего доброго!

[@ThePianoFiles]

Glad you enjoyed it. The information about the drawing is in the text below the player window on KZbin.

[@НадеждаБогданова-р7э]

@@ThePianoFiles Я прочитала-Спасибо!

[@bvbwv3]

What a gift to us - this posting! The phrasings, color-shades and tempi with Granados and Debussy, in particular, are breathtaking.

[@jackatherton0111]

Verve!

[@ThePianoFiles]

YES!

[@leonwhitesell4849]

Gifted and brilliant, healthy, and not antiseptic, as our “perfect” cd’s seem to be. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🙏

[@mnmleung]

Thank you for the recordings, and for the amusing incident !

[@petertarsio7168]

Yes but there is so much to say about speed where everything washes together. If she would slow it down and be more articulate it might sound better.

[@jamesmiller4184]

Peter, occasionally as problematical was the time limitation of available sides, that caused pianists to rush somewhat to get longer movements onto them. All sound can be slowed here without pitch change suffered. Just click on the "Settings" wheel and look for "Playback speed" and select one. For any larghississimo dragging interpretations, simply select one for speeding it up.

[@romahoffman4195]

The Liszt so inspirational Thank you for all of it!

[@PBECKLES1]

Made great listening.

[@farkasmaganyos]

Beautiful

[@BachBusoni]

Interesting performances! I'm not sure I'm convinced by how much she rushes in the Granados Spanish Dance, but I suppose it's a good reminder of how common it seems it was to play at very fast tempos in her era.

[@jamesmiller4184]

@BB -- We might keep in-mind the fact that the side sizes chosen for recording onto were often the limiters of time allowed, and so some performances are bound to be found sped-up a bit.