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

72 The Hidden Nest
Mussolini invited her to play for him. . . . Miss Rudge has achieved
outstanding distinction as a violinist.’’
Antheil, aboard the Cunard line’s Ascania en route to New York, wrote
Ezra: ‘‘Olga and I are now on the peak of financial success—we’ve long
ago passed the artistic one. I want you to make a big e√ort to push me over,
and . . . I’ll pull Olga over . . . I liked Olga’s private performance of the
fiddle sonatas at 2, rue Chamfort, better than most anything in the world.’’
Olga was booked to play two Mozart sonatas and a Mozart concerto
with Ernesto Consolo at the Sala Filarmonica in Florence on March 30, a
concert that brought the young artist to the attention of Bernard Berenson,
who invited Olga to his villa, I Tatti. Ezra coached Olga before the
visit: ‘‘Berenson is a very great critic; also has sense of humour. Don’t
imagine B.B. (pronounced bee-bee) will expect you or anyone to have
read his works. . . . I Tatti is a perfectly proper place to spend the night—it
would have been ungracious to refuse.’’
I Tatti nestles below the village of Settignano northeast of Florence with
a magnificent view of the nearby valley and its olive-drab trees and golden
fields. Standing three stories high, the bu√-colored villa is ringed by
cypresses and a walled garden. At the time of Olga’s visit, each room was
painted a distinctive color, Aubusson rugs covered the red tile floors, and
the walls were hung with Berenson’s collection of Italian Renaissance art.
Unconventional members of the Anglo-American colony congregated
at I Tatti, especially on Saturdays, when Berenson held court with his wife,
née Mary Smith, sister of Logan Pearsall Smith of a wealthy Philadelphia
family and sister-in-law of Bertrand Russell. Mary had been married to
Frank Costello, before she left with her two children to join Berenson at I
Tatti. Berenson, born Lithuanian and raised in Boston’s North End, was a
self-taught art critic of exquisite taste. One wonders if he had been informed
of Olga’s liaison with Pound, for he was quoted as saying, ‘‘Can
anyone be faithful to anyone? Fidelity belongs to an era of slavery.’’
Olga herself was gaining international recognition. Her photo appeared
on May 15 in New York’s Town and Country above the roving
correspondent’s byline: