After a great many rehearsals for the actors, for the musicians, and for the Princess’ dances, which Mme Pitoëff and I evolved together, we reached the moment to which we had so eagerly looked forward, and on September 28, 1918, the first performance was given – at the Lausanne Theatre. / I had always been a sincere admirer of René Auberjonois’ drawings and painting, but I had not expected that he would give proof of such subtle imagination and such complete mastery as he did in the scenery and costumes and the whole artistry of his setting. Among our other collaborators I had had the good fortune to discover one who later became no only a most faithful and devoted friend, but also one of the most reliable and understanding executants of my compositions: I mean Ansermet. / I had already recommended him to Diaghileff to take the place of Pierre Monteux, who, greatly to our regret, had had to leave us to take up the direction of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and I valued very highly his admirable gifts of musicianship, the firmness of his conducting, and his broad general culture, but up to that time I had not been able to form a definite opinion of him as conductor of my own works. / He was frequently absent, and it was, therefore, only rarely and by chance that I had had any opportunity of hearing conduct my music; and the few isolated renderings I had heard, good though they were, had not been sufficient to show me what an admirable conductor he was to become, and how faithfully he could transmit my musical thought to the public, without ever falsifying it by personal or arbitrary interpretation. For, as I have already said, music should be transmitted and not interpreted, because interpretation reveals the personality of the interpreter rather than that of the author, and who can guarantee that such an executant will reflect the author’s vision without distortion? / An executant’s talent lies precisely in his faculty for seeing what is actually in the score, and certainly not in a determination to find there what he would like to find. This is Ansermet’s greatest and most precious quality, and it particularly revealed itself while we were studying the score of the 'Soldat'. From that moment dates an intellectual understanding between us which time has only increased and strengthened. / His reputation as a perfect executant of my works is well established, but I have always been astonished that many apparently cultured people who admire his execution of contemporary music, do not pay enough attention to the way in which he renders the works of days gone by. Ansermet is one of the conductors who emphatically confirm my longstanding conviction that it is impossible for anyone to grasp fully the art of a bygone period, to penetrate beneath the obsolete from and discern the author’s meaning in a language no longer spoken, unless he has a comprehensive and lively feeling for the present, and unless he consciously participates in the life around him. (…) Ansermet’s merit lies precisely in his ability to reveal the relationship between the music of today and that of the past by purely musical methods. Knowing, as he does to perfection, the musical language of our own times, and, on the other hand, playing a large number of old, classical scores, he soon perceived that the authors of all periods were confronted by the solution of problems which were, above all, specifically musical. That is his rare merit, and that explains his vital contact with the musical literature of the most diverse periods. / With regard to technique in the true sense of the word, to give a rendering of the 'Soldat' was a brilliant opportunity for Ansermet to display his mastery. For with an orchestra of only seven musicians, all playing as soloists, there could be no question of fooling the public by the dynamic effects with which we were all familiar and which are all too easy; it was necessary not only to reach a meticulous perfection and precision of execution, but to sustain it without ever faltering for a moment, because, with so small a number of instruments, it would have been impossible to conceal what an adroit conductor could have made to pass unnoticed in a large orchestra. / Taking all these things into consideration, the first performance of the 'Soldat' completely satisfied me. Now was this so from the point of view of music only. It was a great success as a whole, thanks to careful execution, setting, and perfect interpretation. The true note was struck then, but unfortunately I have never since seen a performance of the 'Soldat' that has satisfied me to the same degree. I have kept a special place in my memory for that performance, and I am grateful to my friends and collaborators, as well as to Werner Reinhart, who, having been unable to find any other backers, generously financed the whole enterprise himself. As a token of my gratitude and friendship, I wrote for, and dedicated to, him three pieces for clarinet solo, he being familiar with that instrument and liking to play it among his intimates. << less