Henri Casadesus

Henri Casadesus with viola and viola d'amore, ca. 1900.

Henri-Gustave Casadesus (30 September 1879, Paris – 31 May 1947, Paris) was a violist, viola d'amore player, and music publisher.

Casadesus received his early musical instruction with Albert Lavignac and studied viola with Théophile Laforge at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking first prize in 1899. From 1910 to 1917, he was the violist of the Capet Quartet.[1]

Along with Camille Saint-Saëns, Casadesus founded the Society of Ancient Instruments in 1901. The society, which operated between 1901 and 1939, was a quintet of performers who used obsolete instruments such as the viola da gamba, or Casadesus's own instrument, the viola d'amore.

The quintet was also notable in its day for premiering rediscovered works by long-dead composers. It was later discovered that Casadesus and his brothers, notably Marius Casadesus, wrote these works. The Adélaïde Concerto, allegedly by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Henri but is actually by Marius.

However, Henri is believed to have been the author of a "Concerto in D Major for Viola" ascribed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, described by Rachel W. Wade in her survey The Keyboard Concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. This concerto appeared in 1911 in a Russian edition, allegedly "transcribed...for small orchestra by Maximilian Steinberg," and was subsequently performed by conductors such as Darius Milhaud and Serge Koussevitsky, then recorded by both Felix Prohaska and Eugene Ormandy, all under the false attribution. "Thus," Wade wrote in 1981, "at the present time, the most frequently recorded concerto of C.P.E. Bach is a spurious one."[2]

Henri is also credited with the "Handel Concerto" and the "J.C. Bach Concerto," which are both for viola as well. These are often referred to as "The Handel/Casadesus Concerto" and "The J.C. Bach/Casadesus Concerto". Scholarly criticism has confirmed that both these concerti were written by Henri Casadesus in the style of their purported composers.

He was the brother of Marius Casadesus and Robert-Guillaume Casadesus, uncle of the famous pianist Robert Casadesus, and granduncle of Jean Casadesus. Henri Casadesus had five children including actor Christian Casadesus (1912-2014) and actress Gisèle Casadesus (born 1914). He was grandfather to Jean-Claude Casadesus and Dominique Probst.

Selected works

Stage
Société des Instruments Anciens fondée en 1901 par Henri Casadesus. Postcard showing Henri Casadesus and his ensemble: Marius, Lucette, & Régine Casadesus, and M. Devilliers. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Orchestral
  1. Cortège et danse des treilles
  2. L'Erbeto di frisoun
  3. Le pas du cap de juven
  4. Tambourin
Concertante
Chamber music
Pedagogical works
Piano
C'est moi, One-step
Jeux innocents, Fox-trot
Loulou, Fox-trot
Radix, One-step
  1. Pavane
  2. Passepied
  3. Menuet tendre
  4. Canarie
Vocal
Film scores

References

  1. ↑ Henri Casadesus
  2. ↑ Wade, Rachel W. The Keyboard Concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. UMI Research Press, 1981, pp. 279–82 (Appendix B).
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