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• Personalities
• Classical
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• Late Romantic

(Van-son’ Dan-de’) 1851–1931 French composer An influential member of Franck’s circle, D’Indy was a vociferous promoter of Franck’s ideas, and his biographer. He was a prolific composer in every genre. He excelled in programme music, inspired by French and Swiss landscapes and nature. Best known are the colourful tone-poems for piano and orchestra, Jour d’été à la montagne ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(A-dwär La-lo’) 1823–92 French composer After studies at the Paris Conservatoire, Lalo joined a string quartet, composing salon music and songs. In 1874, after a fallow period, he first achieved success with the Symphonie espagnole (‘Spanish Symphony’, 1874), a scintillating violin concerto whose five movements exude Spanish rhythmic zest and lyricism (he was of Spanish descent). This was ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(E-ma-el’ Shab-re-a’) 1841–94 French composer After hearing Wagner’s Tristan in Munich in 1879 with D’Indy and Duparc, Chabrier resigned his government post to become a full-time composer. The spectacular success of España (1883), a scintillating symphonic poem, proved him a master orchestrator. He composed two successful opéras comiques, L’étoile (‘The Star’, 1877) and Le roi malgré lui (‘King in ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(On-re’ Düpärk’) 1848–1933 French composer Duparc’s small but exquisite output influenced the development of French ‘mélodie’ through Fauré and Debussy. Duparc studied with Franck, whose circle he joined alongside Chausson, Chabrier and D’Indy, absorbing the Wagnerian style through visits to Bayreuth and Munich. From 1868 to 1884 Duparc produced the 13 songs upon which his reputation is founded: each ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Instrumentalist
• Late Romantic

(E’-zak Al-ba’-neth) 1860–1909 Spanish pianist and composer Albéniz led the revival of a Spanish national musical style at the turn of the twentieth century. He studied composition with Felipe Pedrell (1841–1922), famous for his pioneering collections of Spanish folk and classical music that also inspired Albéniz’s contemporary Enrique Granados and, a little later, Manuel de Falla (1876–1946). Aged 20, ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Jool Mas-na’) 1842–1912 French composer Shortly after his first operatic success with Le roi de Lahore (‘The King of Lahore’, 1877) Massenet became professor at the Paris Conservatoire; he was subsequently elected to the French Academy instead of his rival Saint-Saëns. Massenet’s 28 operas include several enduring masterpieces: Manon (1884) remains one of the most popular French Romantic operas, while Werther ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Rich’-ärd Varg’-na) 1813–83 German composer Wagner is one of the most influential and controversial composers in the history of classical music. He was born in Leipzig and educated there and in Dresden. His later years were spent in Bayreuth, the home of the festival theatre and the yearly summer festival he founded, which still flourish today. The idea of Bayreuth ...

• Classical
• Contemporary Classical

European culture lay in ruins after the end of World War II. There were many who, in company with the philosopher Theodor Adorno, felt that Nazi atrocities such as Auschwitz rendered art impossible, at least temporarily. Others, though, felt that humanity could only establish itself anew by rediscovering the potency of art, including opera. On ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Instrumentalist
• Late Romantic

(Oi’-gan Dal’-ber) 1864–1932 German pianist and composer Born in Glasgow to a ballet composer, at 17 D’Albert moved to Vienna, befriending the great Wagner conductors Richter and Bülow, as well as Brahms and Liszt, with whom he studied. Widely admired as a piano virtuoso (several of his six wives were noted musicians), D’Albert was increasingly drawn to operatic composition. ...