Jean-Louis Duport (1749-1819) - Nocturne concertante (1815)

Joyeux anniversaire Jean-Louis Duport! 🎻🎉 Composer: Jean-Louis Duport (1749-1819) Work: Nocturne concertante (en sol mineur) aux ’Trois Nocturnes en Duo pour Harpe et Violoncelle [ou Violon]’ (1815) Performers: Helga Storck (harp); Klaus Storck (1928-2011, violoncello) Nocturne concertante (1815) 1. Allegro vivace 0:00 2. Andante 5:24 3. Finale 10:02 Drawing: Jean-Baptiste Mallet (1759-1835) - La Visite aux jeunes mariés (1795) HD image: Painting: Remi-Fursy Descarsin (1747-1793) - Jean-Louis Duport, violoncelliste (1788) HD image: Further info: Listen free: No available --- Jean-Louis Duport [le jeune] (Paris, 4 October 1749 - Paris, 7 September 1819) French cellist and composer, brother of Jean-Pierre Duport (1741-1818). Son of a dancing master, he began to study the cello with his brother and later with Martin Berteau, the founder of the French school of cello playing. He soon was appointed as cellist at the Opera and at the Concert Spiritual in Paris. He enjoyed the patronage of the Baron de Bagge, thanks to their shared freemasonry associations, and he was introduced to the violinist Viotti when he arrived in Paris in 1782. The two became close friends, playing together frequently. In 1783 he settled in London and in his return to Paris was recognized as the nation’s foremost cellist. Political associations forced him to flee in 1790, and he took refuge with his brother at the Berlin court. Here he became principal cellist in the opera orchestra and he also worked as a cello teacher. Following the dissolution of the Berlin’s Kapelle after the Battle of Jena, and his wife’s death, he came back to Paris. Although named Professeur Honoraire at the Conservatoire, he was politically unemployable in Paris until 1812. Forced to retire when the Conservatoire was reorganized, he continued to compose and to perform both privately and at the revitalized Concert Spirituel until his death. As a composer, he was greatly influenced by the playing of Viotti and attempted to adapt the style of the great violinist to his instrument. He wrote six cello concertos, sonatas, duos, airs variees and nine nocturnes (for harp and cello). His ’Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et la conduite de l’archet, avec une suite d’exercices’ was for decades a standard textbook, and practically laid the foundations of modern cello virtuosity.