Olga Rudge - Career

Career

Rudge first met the poet Ezra Pound when he reviewed a concert Rudge gave at the Aeolian Hall in November 1920, admiring the "delicate firmness of her fiddling" yet criticising the "piano whack" of her accompanist Renata Borgatti. Rudge does not seem to have taken much notice of Pound's review. She continued her association with Borgatti and pursuing her interest in modern Italian music, giving concerts with Borgatti and Pizzetti at the Sala Bach in Rome in 1921, and joining Renata Borgatti again at the Salle Pleyel in 1922.

One of her first meetings with Pound took place in 1923, in Paris at the salon of Natalie Barney. Pound later recalled "her delicate and unemphatic reserve". At this time Pound was developing his own musical interests, composing an opera and advancing the work of the American composer George Antheil. Antheil and Rudge were to enjoy a long professional collaboration dating from this period, which also marked the beginning of her sexual relationship with Pound. Rudge was now an established and successful soloist living in a luxurious apartment on Paris's ultra respectable "right bank". She had nothing to gain by an association with a bohemian eccentric poet such as Pound, who was definitely "left bank" in his views and works. This willingness to flout convention and put her reputation at risk would typify her long affair with Pound.

In December 1923, Rudge and Antheil gave a concert at the Salle du Conservatoire which included not only works by Mozart, Bach, and Antheil, but also Ezra Pound's "Sujet pour violin". For his work to be performed by a notable soloist was exactly the publicity Pound the aspiring composer desired. In 1924, Rudge and Antheil performed "Musique Americaine" at the Salle Pleyel. This concert also included work by Pound and Antheil's "Deuxieme Sonate", dedicated to Rudge. From 1923 onwards, Pound's letters to Rudge advise her on her career. He strongly recommended her to pay more attention to her patrons (something he himself never failed to do), and chided her for her lack of interest in the press comments concerning her concerts.

It is a major impediment to evaluating Rudge's qualities as a musician that, while her abilities are documented in the music criticism of her time, no recordings of her work are known to survive.

By 1924, Pound and his wife, the former Dorothy Shakespear, had moved from Paris to Rapallo, Italy. Rudge, now in the full throes of her enduring love affair with Pound, visited him several times. From this time Pound seems to have divided his time equally between Rudge and his wife, a situation which was to continue until the Second World War. In the Spring of 1925, Rudge was forced to pull out of a planned concert tour of the United States as she was pregnant by Pound. In June 1925, she gave birth to her daughter Mary (Pound's only biological child) at the local hospital in the city of Brixen in the province of South Tyrol. Keen to avoid the stigma an illegitimate child would have on Rudge's career, Olga paid to have Mary looked after by a peasant family in the South Tyrolian village of Gais—a German speaking village part of Italy.

She remained unconcerned about the possible stigma of being the mistress of a married man, and her association with Pound continued unabated. She resumed her career with a concert at the Salle Pleyel in 1926, where she played in the premiere of Pound's new opera, Le Testament de Villon. Her association with Antheil continued with concerts in the capital cities of Europe, and at this time she began to specialise in the works of Mozart. She was now one of the most celebrated solo violinists of the era, playing before the Heads of State and political leaders of Europe.

In 1928, Rudge's father bought her a small house in Venice, situated in the Calle Querini. Named "The Hidden Nest," it was to be her Venetian home for the remainder of her life. There, she began to develop her maternal instincts, bringing her daughter Mary for occasional visits. It was the beginning of a difficult and complex relationship between mother and daughter. Mary's existence was a closely guarded secret: Pound did not disclose it even to his own father until 1930. Pound often stayed with Rudge when their daughter visited Venice. However, the couple were often keen to be alone together, and so Rudge rented a Rapallo house near that of Pound and his wife, where the couple were able to conduct their affair unhindered by wife and children (Pound had a stepson, Omar, who was Dorothy's son by an unknown father, thought to be an Egyptian).

The 1930s were the years of a global depression affecting all industries including the music industry. Most patrons and customers of concerts, venues, and performers were now often in financial difficulties themselves. To make ends meet, Rudge worked in 1933 as a secretary to Accademia Musicale in Siena. She also managed to continue her musical career, performing in the annual Concerti Tigulliani program organized by Pound at Rapallo. Around this time, Rudge and Pound became key figures in the Antonio Vivaldi revival. The 1936 Concerti Tigulliani program was devoted to Vivaldi, especially his lesser known works. To prepare for these concerts, Rudge studied many of Vivialdi's original scores kept in Turin. She attempted to organize a Vivaldi Society in Venice, without success. In 1938, she founded the "Centro di Studi Vivaldiani" at the "Accademia Chigiana", devoted to Vivaldi's work.

Rudge and Pound were both keen readers of mystery and detective novels: this was the era of Agatha Christie, whose books earned her a fortune. Seeking to do the same, Pound and Rudge began in the 1930s, but never completed, a detective novel of their own; titled "The Blue Spill", it centred on the escapades of a Surrey detective.

As World War II approached, Rudge limited her travel outside of Italy, last playing in London in 1935. By this time, Pound was vehemently pro-Mussolini and had begun broadcasting his views on Radio Rome, with Rudge's support. In 1941, they thought of returning to the U.S.A. for the duration of the war. Pound eventually decided against doing so, and they remained in Italy throughout the war. Pound's failure, at a crucial juncture, to declare his loyalty to his native country when it was at war, haunted him from the end of the war until the end of his life. As for Rudge, she had to live with the suspicion that she was the lover of a traitor to her country.