Sublime music making by Maurice Maréchal and the glory of Louis de Caix dHervelois............ Cellist Maurice Maréchal (October 3, 1892 - April 19, 1964) and pianist Jean Doyen play Prélude, Plainte et La Napolitaine, by Louis de Caix dHervelois (ca. 1670, France - October 18, 1759, France) Maréchal, Maurice (b Dijon, 3 Oct 1892; d Paris, 19 April 1964). French cellist. He studied at the Dijon Conservatoire and later with Jules Loeb at the Paris Conservatoire, graduating at 19 with a premier prix. In 1919, after his army service in World War I, he made his début with the Lamoureux Orchestra, which launched his solo career. He subsequently toured internationally, and in 1926 made a memorable appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. Maréchal’s superb playing, combined with his interest in contemporary composition, made him one of the major influences on French music of his time. Ravel dedicated his Sonata for violin and cello to Maréchal, who gave the first performance with the violinist Hélène Jourdan-Morhange in 1922; other premières include André Caplet’s Epiphanie (1923), Ibert’s Cello Concerto (1925), Robert Casadesus’ Introduction and Polonaise for Cello and Orchestra (1927), Honegger’s Cello Concerto (1930) and Jean Françaix’ Fantaisie (1934). A keen chamber music player, Maréchal was a member of the Fauré and Franck quartets, with Alfred Cortot and Jacques Thibaud, and from 1922 to 1927 he was cellist of the Casadesus Trio with Robert and Marius Casadesus. Maréchal’s playing was once described as possessing ‘ineffably beautiful tone, artistic fantasy and poetic penetration’. In later years he developed a muscular disease which affected his right arm, but as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire (from 1942) he continued to be active until his death. (Oxford Music Online) Caix dHervelois wrote music almost exclusively for the viol. Most of his other works exist as transcriptions from his viol music. A native of the north of France, almost nothing is known of his life. However, his changing addresses appear in his published music as well as in passing in contemporary discussions of the viol, and in brief notes in archives. The longest archival text (1697) documents a request by a canon of Sainte-Chapelle, annoyed by the noise of the young chapelain ordinaire Caix learning to play the viol, that Caix practice in a room under the stairs. Louis de Caix dHervelois was a pupil of the great Marin Marais. Caixs tuneful, graceful music is firmly in the French tradition of character pieces in dance suites. It is among the most idiomatic music written for the viol, its apparent simplicity deepening when interpreted in the light of the traditions of French viol performance practice. The French musicologist Philippe Beaussant wrote of Caixs music and anonymity: « Lon pourrait considérer Caix dHervelois comme une sort de pseudonyme sous lequel se cacherait un personnage réel, dont le nom est: la Viole, en France, au moment où elle est en passe de disparaître. » One might look upon Caix dHervelois as a sort of pseudonym masking a person whose name was the Viol of France, just at the moment when it was about to disappear. (Wikipedia)
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 03:04:38 +0000