Édouard Lalo

Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (27 January 1823 – 22 April 1892) was a French composer of Spanish descent.

Biography

Édouard Lalo was born in Lille (Nord), in northernmost France. He attended that city's music conservatory in his youth. Then, beginning at age 16, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berlioz's old enemy François Antoine Habeneck. For several years, he worked as a string player and teacher in Paris. He joined with friends to found of the Armingaud Quartet, playing viola and second violin. His earliest surviving compositions are songs and chamber works. (Two early symphonies were destroyed.) Julie Besnier de Maligny, a contralto from Brittany, became his bride in 1865. Lalo's new wife aroused his early interest in opera and led him to compose works for the stage. Unfortunately, they were deemed too progressive and Wagnerian and were not initially well received despite their freshness and originality. This led him to dedicate most of his career to the composition of chamber music, which was in vogue, and to writing works for orchestra.

Lalo did not gain fame as a composer until his late forties. "Le roi d'Ys" ("The King of Ys"), an opera based on a Breton legend (see: "Ys"), is his most accomplished and complex work. (The same legend stimulated Debussy to compose his famous piano piece, "La Cathédrale engloutie".) The opera was rejected for 10 years after composition and was not performed until 1888, when he was 65 years old. Its success opened doors for Lalo to the end of his life. However, his imagination and the desire to compose new music were diminishing. He died in Paris at age 69, leaving several unfinished works.

Although Lalo is not one of the most immediately recognized names in French music, his distinctive style has earned him some degree of popularity. "Symphonie espagnole" for violin and orchestra still enjoys a prominent place in violinists' repertoire, and is known in many classical circles simply as "The Lalo". Lalo is also known for concertos, including his Cello Concerto in D minor. The same Breton legend that inspired "Le roi d'Ys", went on to spark the creation of his "Symphony in G Minor" and chamber works. Lalo's style is notable for strong melodies and colourful orchestration, with a rather Germanic solidity that sets him apart from most of his compatriots. This distinctive style and strong expressive bent can be seen even in such compactly constructed works as the "Scherzo in D minor", one of Lalo's most colorful compositions.

Lalo's son Pierre Lalo (6 September 1866 - 9 June 1943) was a music critic who wrote for "Le Temps" and other French periodicals from 1898 until his death.

Selected works

Operas

*"Fiesque" ("The Genoese Conspiracy") (1866-8), (grand opera in 3 acts, C. Beauquier, after Schiller); world premiere concert performance: Le Festival de Radio France, Montpellier, France, July 2006; first stage performance: National Theater Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany, 16 June 2007. [ [http://www.sanepr.com/World-Premiere-of-Lalo-Opera_18115.cfm "World Premiere of Lalo Opera"] Article by Liam Otten for the Washington University Record, from: National Theater Mannheim (SANE PR).] ; The UK premiere of Fiesque was performed by University College Opera at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London in March 2008. [ [http://www.thebloomsbury.com/event/run/1125 "Bloomsbury theatre events"] Bloomsbury Theatre events calendar.]
*"Le roi d'Ys" ("The King of Ys") (1875-88, full score n.d.), (opera in 3 acts, E. Blau), f.p. Opéra Comique (Favart), Paris, 7 May 1888.
*"Néron" ("Nero") (1891) (pantomime in 3 acts, P. Millier), f.p. Hippodrôme, Paris, 28 March 1891. (Pastiche based on "Fiesque" and other scores)
*"La jacquerie" ("The Jacquerie Revolt") (1891-2) (opera in 4 acts, Blau & S. Arnault) (Act I finished by Lalo, completed posthumously by Arthur Coquard), f.p. Monte Carlo, Monaco, 9 March 1895.

Orchestral works

*"Aubade pour dix instruments (1872)
*"Aubade pour orchestre" (1872)
*"Divertissement pour orchestre" (1872)
*"Concerto pour violon" (1873)
*"Symphonie espagnole" (1874) (for violin and orchestra)
*"Concerto pour violoncelle" (1877)
*"Rapsodie norvégienne" (1879)
*"Concerto russe" (1879)
*"Symphonie" (1886)
*"Concerto pour piano" (1889)
*"Scherzo en re mineur pour orchestre"
*"Concerto russe", Op. 29; 2nd movement: "Chants russe", for cello and piano
*Scènes de "Savonarole", unpublished opera scenes

Chamber music

*"Sonate pour violon" (1853)
*"Sonate pour violoncelle" (1856)
*"Trios avec piano" (Three piano trios)
*"Quatuor à cordes"

Vocal works

*"Cinq lieder", texts by Lamartine, Laprade, and Silvestre (1879)
*"Six mélodies", poetry by Victor Hugo (1855)
*"Trois mélodies", text by Alfred de Musset

Ballet

*"Namouna" (1882) (book by Nuitter & Petipa), f.p. Opéra, Paris, 6 Mars 1882.

Notes

References

*cite book | last = Sadie | first = Stanley (Ed.) |year = 1994 | origyear = 1992 |title = The New Grove Dictionary of Opera| others = vol. 2, E-Lom, chpt: "Lalo, Edouard(-Victoire-Antoine)" by Hugh MacDonald | publisher = MacMillan | location = New York | id = ISBN 0-935859-92-6

External links

* [http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/music-books-h-to-m.htm Lalo Piano Trio Nos. 1-3 sound-bites and discussion of works]
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