Personalities | François-Joseph Gossec | Classical Era | Classical

(Fran-swa Zho-zef’ Gu-sek’) 1734–1829
Belgian (French) composer

Born in what is now the French-speaking part of Belgium, Gossec spent most of his career in Paris working in the different roles of theatre composer, violinist and director of musical organizations. These organizations included the Concert Spirituel, the Ecole Royale de Chant and (after the Revolution) the band of the Garde Nationale. The composer was deeply influenced by the tumuluous events of the era in which he lived. He wrote operas and ballets for the Opéra and the Comédie-Italienne and also revolutionary hymns and sacred and instrumental works; later he taught at the new Conservatoire. A prolific composer, Gossec was important chiefly as the leading writer of symphonies in France in his time and for his post-Revolution role as civic composer and ‘democratizer of art’.

Recommended Recording:
Sinfonias, London Mozart Players (cond) Matthias Bamert (Chandos)

Introduction | Classical Era | Classical
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