La Trompette was a chamber music society based in Paris, founded by Émile Lemoine in January 1861.[1] It has been credited with a major role in the propagation of chamber music in France.[2] Performers included Camille Saint-Saëns, Louis Diémer, Paul Taffanel, Felix Weingartner, Pablo Casals, Harold Bauer, Wanda Landowska, Alfred Cortot, and Serge Koussevitzky.[3][4]
History
The society was founded in 1861 by Lemoine and three fellow students at the École Polytechnique, who enjoyed playing quartets. The name "La Trompette" stemmed from a "non-sympathetic remark a teacher once made to quiet the quartet". With increasing popularity, it became a weekly private concert series. In 1878, the society moved to the hall of the Horticultural Society at 84 Rue de Grenelle, which seated 850.[4]
Lemoine kept the nature of the society informal, considering himself not a manager or director but a host, and members of the society not to be subscribers but his friends, even though an annual monetary contribution was requested from each guest.[1]
The concerts were invitation-only, Lemoine considering the audiences "very musical and ultra-select, with distinction and intellectual value but without snobbery". They began in the late evening, often with a quartet, and were held late December to early May. Most concerts combined a variety of styles, periods, and genres.[4]
After Lemoine died in 1913, his wife continued the society.[4]
Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns, a friend of Lemoine, was a longtime associate of La Trompette. He wrote his Septet specifically for the society, after Lemoine had "pestered" him years for a special piece to justify the name of the society.[5]
Compositions by Saint-Saëns that were premiered at La Trompette include:[6]
- Septet, Op. 65 (28 December 1880)
- Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 75 (9 January 1886)
- Barcarolle, Op. 108 (18 May 1898)
References
Further reading
- Augé de Lassur, Lucien (1911). La Trompette: Un Demi-Siècle de Musique de Chambre. Paris: Ch. Delagrave.