Guiomar Novaes

Guiomar Novaes (February 28, 1895 – March 7, 1979) was a Brazilian pianist known for individuality of tone and phrasing, singing line, and a subtle and nuanced approach to her interpretations. That year there were two vacancies for foreign students at the Conservatoire—and 387 applicants. Novaes played for a jury that included Debussy, Fauré, Moszkowski and Widor. Her pieces were the Paganini–Liszt Etude in E, Chopin's A-flat Ballade and Schumann's Carnaval. She won first place. Debussy wrote a letter in which he reports his amazement about the little Brazilian girl who came to the platform and, forgetting about public and jury, played with tremendous beauty and complete absorption.

Novaes' technique and musical interpretations may have already been fully formed by the time she reached Paris. One of her first pieces for Philipp was Beethoven's Les Adieux Sonata. Philipp said she played the second movement much too fast and suggested that she repeat it at a slower tempo. Novaes thought for a moment, then replayed with some differences in detail but at exactly the same tempo. This happened several times. Philipp finally gave up, saying later, "Even at that age, she had a mind of her own." Through the 1960s she came to New York every December for a single concert at Carnegie Hall. Her final concert appearance in New York was at Hunter College in 1972.

Style

Novaes commanded a very large repertoire in her early touring days, narrowing it in later life. Whatever she played, she played with an aristocratic approach, a perpetually singing line and complete spontaneity. Her natural approach to the keyboard was part of her appeal. Because of her relaxed, effortless nature at the keyboard, she was one of the few pianists about whom it seemed the instrument was a welded extension of her arms and fingers. The tone and subtlety of her tone recalled the great Romantic pianists of previous generations. Her technique was supple, with no striving for effect.

At all times her playing was intensely poetic. Harold C. Schonberg recalls in his book The Great Pianists that her performance of the Schumann concerto under the direction of André Cluytens in the late 1950s "was strikingly reminiscent of Josef Hofmann's [performances]. It had much the same suppleness, tonal subtlety and unswerving rhythm." Like Hofmann, she never played a piece quite the same way twice. Each time she brought to it a slightly different point of view; each time, the new approach seemed inevitable and perfectly natural.

Later, and especially during the 1950s, she recorded mostly for Vox, producing a recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, with Otto Klemperer and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, that is highly rated by musicians and critics.

Her mid-century recordings of concertos, encore pieces, and Chopin solo works have been reissued by Vox on CD. A 3-CD set of the last-named contains the etudes (Op. 10 and Op. 25), 20 nocturnes, and the B-flat minor Piano Sonata No. 2 ("Funeral March"). Most of her highly regarded Schumann recordings were released on CD in 2009 by the label Musical Concepts. At Philipp's urging, she recorded a set of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, which he said were "unduly neglected." These have not yet officially been released on CD, nor have her Debussy recordings.