Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

112 Rare and Unforgettable Concerts
nearby villa. ‘‘I could not have carried them up the hill with [the] fiddle,
and Father Desmond was near. . . . I remember thinking he looked like the
picture of Christ in ‘The Light of the World,’ knocking on a door and
holding a lantern, with a long cloak. . . . [I remember] his gentle manner,
holding the basket by the handle. . . . He used to invite me for ensemble
music, and paid me, though no arrangement [was] thought of or suggested.’’
This scion of a wealthy Bristol family would remain Olga’s most
trusted friend and confidant.
After the first season of Rapallo concerts came to a close, Olga returned
to Venice and let her house for four months. At Ezra’s suggestion, she
enrolled in master classes in violin at the prestigious Accademia Musicale
Chigiana. Soon after arrival in Siena, it was her good luck to be invited to
dine at the Chigi palazzo by a friend, Adriana da Vinci. Since Olga had not
brought the proper evening wear, Adriana lent her a crimson gown to
complement her newly hennaed hair. Wearing a borrowed dress, Olga
caught the eye of another important man in her life.
Count Guido Chigi Saracini, it was said, resembled an El Greco grandee:
a tall, lean presence with straight patrician nose and pale blue eyes,
courtly and aloof, but happiest in the company of beautiful women. Descended
from two of the great banking families of the twelfth century
(before the Medicis founded their fortune), Chigi inherited a thirteenthcentury
palazzo—the ancestral home of Marco Antonio Saracini—from
his childless Uncle Fabio. In 1260, from its historic tower, a youth reported
the famous Battle of Monteaperti, Siena’s decisive victory over the
rival Florentines. The Count’s early attempts to become a musician himself
ended in frustration—he acquired the reputation of being a ‘‘piano
smasher’’—and thereafter he devoted his energies and considerable fortune
to furthering the careers of other young talents. He remodeled his
inherited palazzo to house a concert hall that Bernard Berenson described
as ‘‘a view one might get when standing inside a gigantic wedding cake.’’
The Count then filled the palazzo with a collection of valuable instruments
and lured some of the world’s most renowned musicians to Siena to
play them.
Olga charmed him, not only because of her striking good looks but