Louis Theodore

Louis Théodore Gouvy (1819–98) was born on the border between two cultures, French and German. He grew up in a French-speaking family living in an Alsatian village in the Saare, which at the time of his birth was under Prussian control. Not until he was 32 was he able to attain French citizenship.

Alsatian composer Théodore Gouvy (1819-1898) composed seven symphonies, making him one of the few French composers of his day to focus on abstract instrumental music. The fact that he was independently wealthy helped, but even so, and like his compatriot Berlioz, he enjoyed greater success in Germany (Leipzig especially) than he did in France. That said, the music on offer here sounds distinctly French in its supple rhythms, light textures, and piquant scoring for winds and harp (in the slow movement of the Third Symphony). The handling of form is also very assured given the music's mid-19th-century provenance.

Previous reviews of Gouvy’s music in Fanfare have commented upon its echoes of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and those certainly are present here. The first subject of the symphony’s finale, with its rapid triplet accompaniment, immediately recalls the opening of the “Italian” Symphony, and the spirit of Schumann hovers over portions of the first movement, and also of the last two movements of the Sinfonietta. The early Brahms of the serenades also makes his presence felt in the second subject of the symphony’s first movement. Occasional phrases recall Bizet (one figure in the symphony’s scherzo is close kin to a smuggler’s chorus in Carmen ), Gounod, and Berlioz. Yet, in listening to both compositions, the music of a different figure came immediately and strikingly to mind—Max Bruch.

Fellow composers such as Ambroise Thomas and Charles Gounod attended the Symphony No. 4 premiere in Paris, 1856, and were moved to amazed admiration. French critics approvingly wrote how ‘finely thought out, expansively developed, and clearly and brilliantly written’ the score was.

Political and cultural circumstances – depending on whether Lorraine / Lothringen belonged to France or Germany – made Théodore Gouvy a border crosser between these two countries. It was very unusual for a French composer of his generation not to assign a central role to music theater in his oeuvre. His rejection of Wagner's music dramas also made him something of an exception in France. It is true, however, that the oratorio was a key genre within his oeuvre – and the oratorio at least can be counted as a dramatic genre. Gouvy wrote six major oratorio compositions, two based on Nordic subjects and two drawing on ancient tragedies.

A prestigious line-up of musicians - Les Solistes de Prades, directed by clarinettist Michel Lethiec - introduces us to a Théodore Gouvy who here appears warmer and more unexpected than ever, in this anthology of large-scale works for wind instruments. A splendid, previously unpublished 'Septet', dedicated to Paul Taffanel, and the Ottetto accompnay the 'Petite Suite Gauloise'. Here is another stage in the process of rediscovery of this once little-known composer from Lorraine, who again confirms his position as a major figure in late nineteenth-century French music.

The range and variety of French piano music in the 19th and 20th centuries is exemplifi ed in these critically acclaimed albums bringing together rarely encountered pieces, a number of which are performed on period instruments. Théodore Gouvy’s little-known sonatas and Benjamin Godard’s fragrant lyricism are part of a lineage that includes the masterful large-scale Piano Sonata of Vincent d’Indy, the virtuosic rarities – many in première recordings – of Saint-Saëns, Satie’s tenderness and wit, and unknown piano versions of some of Debussy’s greatest orchestral masterpieces.

The range and variety of French piano music in the 19th and 20th centuries is exemplifi ed in these critically acclaimed albums bringing together rarely encountered pieces, a number of which are performed on period instruments. Théodore Gouvy’s little-known sonatas and Benjamin Godard’s fragrant lyricism are part of a lineage that includes the masterful large-scale Piano Sonata of Vincent d’Indy, the virtuosic rarities – many in première recordings – of Saint-Saëns, Satie’s tenderness and wit, and unknown piano versions of some of Debussy’s greatest orchestral masterpieces.