Site designed by Michel-E. Proulx SCOTT ROSS, HARPSICHORDIST, An uncompleted destiny Biography of Scott Ross, Part 2. b PARIS: THE CONSERVATORY AND THE WORKSHOP. «In the Conservatories, I have had to play pieces written by people who saw no difference between a harpsichord and a diesel motor» [1] .
It was on the subject of his Conservatory years that Scott pronounced this killing sentence, telling how, on occasion of a Conservatory concert in which he had to play a contemporary piece in the presence of the composer, he had exaggerated on purpose the «effects» demanded by the latter, just to shame him or ridicule him; and then for his great confusion the said composer came to cheerfully congratulate him for the excellence of his execution!.
The Conservatoire National Supérieur of Paris.
In 1969 , holder of the First Prizes of harpsichord and organ, Scott leaves the Nice Conservatory for the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris where Robert Veyron-Lacroix and Laurence Boulay officiated, in the classes of harpsichord and continuo.
The rue de Madrid workshop.
Actually, in Paris, Scott spends more time loafing in the restauration workshop of the Conservatory Museum than in the Conservatory itself. In fact, speaking plainly in another interview [2], he says that:
|
| «When I got my first prize of the Conservatory in Nice, I went to Paris and I registered in the Paris Conservatoire, but I didn't have musch success with that institution, and in 1971, I got my first prize in the International Competition in Bruges, I then decided to let go with the Conservatory.; this was the proof par excellence that I no longer needed to go to the Conservatory. Winning in an international competition means, in principle, that you're on a slighly superior level ». |
In an interview with the magazine Diapason [3] , he mentions, as if by the way, like a fugitive confession, that 1970 was that « foul year whenI led the reckless life and my mother died». He actually never talked about his mother's suicide, a little as if it had been a treason.
Hubert Bédard.
A word about the workshop. In 1967, Mrs de Chambures, curator of the Instrumental Museum of the Paris Conservatory , and a collector herself, invited in Paris the Bostonian Frank Hubbard, author of a recent but already essential sum on harpsichord making [4], to found the harpsichord restauration workshop. Along with him comes a thirty three years old quebecker, Hubert Bédard, his apprentice in Boston, and who shall remain in Paris. The latter's progression in by itself curious [5] ; at first a student of medicine, he then dedicates himself to music by registering in the Conservatory of Montreal, before he went to study in Vienna, and then one year with Leonhardt in Amsterdam. From then on interested in instruments building, he manages to get accepted at Hubbard's in 1963; once set in Paris, he won't leave France; for some time settled in the château de Maintenon, he'll later move to Brignoles (Var) and die four days after Scott, on June 17th '89 .
Scott, thus, often stays at the workshop where Kenneth Gilbert shall hear him for the first time. According to him, when Scott set himself to play, all remained silent [6] . This is how he got familiar with instruments building, which shall allow him some technical facilities that shall often prove quite useful later on.
When he leaves the Conservatory in 1971, after his victory in Bruges, he is paradoxically only the holder of a mere first honourable mention in sol-fa and of another in harpsichord. [7]
THE BRUGES COMPETITION.
First try.
In 1968, 17 years old Scott Ross presents himself to the Bruges Competition, in which he reaches semifinal level; Kenneth Gilbert tells:
« He came to see me after, because it is customary in Bruges: the candidates may go talk with the different members of the Jury to ask for advice. He thus came to see me, and I saw that he was... disappointed. I do believe that he wanted the First Prize. Which I believed a bit... premature, yet at the same time somewhat sympathetic for an attitude: I immediately understood (...) that he was a go-ahead (...) and that he should never be content with less than the best. » [1]
He thus advises him to come back three years later and to give everything at that time, for he has the impression he had not given his best, as a matter of justifying his defeat in advance, as often with teenagers.
Return to Bruges.
In l971, Scott returns to Bruges. His appearance triggers a murmur in the concert hall. To wit, he wears a jean and displays long hair on his shoulders! At a time, let us remind the reader, which was somewhat stiff necked as a whole, even more so for music competitions! What's more, he goes to the harpsichord without any score, which was neither very common, and attacks the Prelude and Fugue in F # major «just as if he had composed it himself», so dropped in Kenneth Gilbert's ear on of his colleagues of the jury, composed for the circumstance, apart from Gilbert, of Gustav Leonhardt, I. Algrihm and Colin Tilney. Scott, as for himself, says that
«As for work, I did the greatest number of hours a day as was possible. The Competition was the consecration of that work» [2] .
And it is victory. He gets high handed the First Prize, never awarded ever since it's creation. On the occasion, the publisher Heugel offers him, as a complimentary copy, an assortment of the publishings Le Pupitre , especially the four volumes of Couperin's harpsichord pieces. But, for a but there is, not only is the Prize worth a mere four thousand Belgian francs, but more surprizingly, this most prestigious competition of all opens on nothing!
«This Competition opened on not a single booking. I was not even invited to give a concert. The astounding constatation after a year: naught! They don't even realize their own importance!» [3] .
Leaving the Conservatory.
Scott decides also, as a result, to leave the Conservatory of Paris, as we have seen earlier [4], convinced as he was that he had nothing more to learn from that institution. Later, any journalist's insistence on that period shall prove passably irritating for him [5], each time prompting him to rectify and insist upon his musical filiation through Mrs. Grémy-Chauliac, which in no way connected him with Wanda Landowska [6]. On the other hand, he takes advantage of his being in Bruges, near Kenneth Gilbert, to whom he asks permission to work with in the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. Which cannot fail to surprise Gilbert who wondered what a prizewinner in Bruges could ever find with him.[7]
From 1970 to 1972, Scott shares in Nice the Villa La Muette, 86 of the Boulevard de Fabron, with Odile Aurengo. It is there that, during the summer holidays, Kenneth Gilbert who lent Scott a William Post Ross harpsichord, joins them. Scott shall thus give a seeries of concerts in the Palais Lascaris, in the old city of Nice, and then record the «Mr. Bach» at STIL's.
