Piano Quartets

Menu

Quartets


First name: Albert
Last name: Delvaux
Dates: 1913-2007
Category: Quartet
Nationality: Belgian
Opus name: Cinq pieces (1964)
Publisher: CEBEDEM
Peculiarities: IMD; to buy: accolade: http://www.accolade.de/advanced_search_result.php?categories_id=21&inc_subcat=1&page=6
Information: Albert Delvaux studied at the municipal Conservatory of his native town Leuven (Louvain), at a time when prominent composers were in charge of the Conservatory, such as Martin Lunssens (1921-1924) and Henry George D’Hoedt (1924-1936). Subsequently Delvaux went to the Royal Conservatory of Liège, where he obtained the virtuoso prize for cello (1935), the higher degree of chamber music (1936) and first prizes for counterpoint and fugue. His most important teachers there were Rodolphe Soiron (cello), Joseph Leroy and François Rasse (counterpoint, fugue, composition and orchestration). Next he took a conducting course with Igor Markevitch at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Delvaux made a career mainly in music education. He was a teacher at the Teachers’ Training College of Tienen (1941) and at the municipal music Conservatory of Leuven (1942-1953). He was professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Brussels Royal Music Conservatory and from 1946 to 1978 director of the municipal music academy at Sint-Niklaas. In this function he paid a lot of attention to musical technique, which for him was the basis of all music. His oeuvre barely comprises some eighty pieces, yet covering many genres: chamber music, songs, choral works, cantatas, symphonic works and concertos. Also in his compositions he attached great importance to craftsmanship, tradition and classical structures. His early works are imbued with an impressionistic atmosphere, like the lushly orchestrated Poème symphonique (1943), inspired by Verhaeren’s poem Le chant de l’eau. In later compositions Delvaux uses dodecaphonic elements and modes which he borrows from Olivier Messiaen. © Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek vzw - Jan Dewilde (translation: Jo Sneppe)