The promising cello student Lucienne Radisse won the Prix d’Excellence at the Paris National Conservatory in 1918. As her concert career progressed, composers of the day deemed her an ideal interpreter of their works, and often counted on her elegant ease and vibrant sonority for premieres. Paris critics were too sophisticated to comment on her blonde beauty, but reviewers in outlying cities—like Geneva, Monte Carlo, and Chicago—often indicated that she was equally gratifying to look at and hear. Never one for prettifying, Colin concentrates here on the soulful quality of Radisse’s playing and sets up a blue-black equation between the waisted shape of the instrument and the instrumentalist herself. Rare!
Imp. Joseph Charles, Paris
literature: PAI-XXII, 306