Berlioz has one of the best graves I’ve visited.
The only problem is that it’s so shiny that you can see my reflection.
This is another really great memorial to a great artist.
Nijinsky as Petrushka.
Even though I go to Levallois almost every week, I’d never been to Ravel’s grave before today.
Tru, I had a smoke and chat with tha legend. 
As were half the Parisian aristocracy. She was one hell of a pricy courtesan (don’t think that “common ho” is particularly appropriate here!), ran up epic expenses on servants and costumes but could always be sure of custom to get cash back 
Even Liszt’s ego must have taken something from rich men falling over themselves to get access to her, but he got her for free and she was the one begging him to take her on tour with her (to Turkey). Of course, he didn’t, probably had something else lined up. 
Well, he isn’t called da pimp for nothing. 
More seriously though, Marie sounds like a real pistol.
She lived life on her terms and didn’t give a fuck what people thought.
I respect that.
Incidentally, the young Anna Netrebko was the spitting image of Marie when she sang Violetta at the Mariinsky in the early 2000s.
What a beautiful woman she was.
Tru
I always thought Marie’s later description of Liszt as a “Don Juan parvenu” was magnificently cutting in minimal words. I get the impression from various Liszt biogs that her failing was in trying to mould him into her style, but it would be interesting to hear it from her side. Of course she was no innocent either.
I’m assuming you’re talking about Marie d’Agoult.
She got some good shots in, I give her credit.
Even though Liszt never acknowledged her characterisation in Nélida, it must have rankled him.
Speaking of Marie’s Don Juan parvenu insult.
My instant retort for that is it’s better to be a parvenu than an arriviste, which Marie was (at least in artistic circles).
As I said earlier in the thread, she saw herself as Beatrice to his Dante, but apart from this she never seems to have thought very highly of his compositions, even in the halcyon days of their romance.
I do feel sorry for her though, which is why I visited her grave and had a chat with her (she was rather taciturn).
She suffered from severe mental health issues which in those days went untreated.
Today she’dbe given a prescription for 40mg of Lexapro and sent on her way. 
The impression I have was that she disparaged the “playing to the gallery” aspect, which certainly is present in much of Liszt pre their breakup c. 1844. Plus maybe she saw her and Liszt as in artistic competition with Chopin and George Sand? Sand was certainly the more successful author. Plus, in a social sense, she probably had far more invested in the relationship that he did, after all she walked out on a financially comfortable though admittedly not terribly successful marriage (her husband was surprisingly reasonable in that he offered to take her back when everything went wrong with Liszt). Liszt was also a f-ing lousy parent by any conventional standards. I think she had a lot to be resentful about, but perhaps that’s what tends to happen whe you’re the artistically fairly ordinary one in the relationship.
I only found out a few years ago that Grainger is buried in Rads. Been meaning to go but haven’t got around to it.
Shit no way, I thought he became an American later in life.
I’m not so proud of him though.
Yeh, but his father was a well known architect here, designed one of the main bridges. I think they’re all buried together.
Like Ravel and his family or Haskil and her sisters.
The most ironic one is Baudelaire sharing a grave with the step-father he hated so much.
That’s rather cruel.
Interesting, beautiful pictures!
Here’s an old phartograph of Liszt’s grave in Bayreuth (unfortunately I never visitid it)
That is defintely top of my bucketlist.
Not sure when I’ll make it there though.
Those are really awesome!
I hadn’t seen a picture of the Brahms memorial before. Pretty amazing sculpture. You can see both the young Brahms and the old bearded Brahms in that single likeness.
I went to Cimetière de Passy and visited Debussy, Fauré and Yves Nat.
Debussy’s grave was hidden away a bit, there was some TM-approved asian chick looking for his grave too.
I was randomly listening to Freire’s recording of the Preludes as I gazed upon his tomb.
