Henri Rabaud

Henri Rabaud

Henri Rabaud (10 November 1873 – 11 September 1949) was a French conductor and composer.

Rabaud was born in Paris, France, the son of cellist and a singer, Hippolyte Rabaud (1839–1900), who was a professor of cello at the Paris Conservatoire. Henri studied at that institution with André Gédalge and Jules Massenet. In 1908, he became the conductor at the Paris Opéra-Comique and from 1914 to 1918 he directed the Opéra. He was musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for only one season before returning to Paris. Following the resignation of Gabriel Fauré in 1922, Rabaud was his successor as director of the Conservatoire, where he remained until his retirement in 1941, having been a firm adherent of the Vichy regime.

Compositions

Rabaud's cantata, Daphné, won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1894. Rabaud's comic opera Mâruf, savetier du Caire combines the Wagnerian and the exotic. He wrote other operas, including L’appel de la mer based on Synge’s Riders to the Sea, as well as incidental music and film scores, such as the 1925 score for Joueur d'échecs (Chess-Player). These have been largely forgotten.

Orchestral music by Rabaud includes a Divertissement on Russian songs and Eglogue, a Virgilian poem for orchestra, as well as the symphonic poem, La procession nocturne his best known orchestral work, still occasionally revived and recorded. He also wrote music for chorus and orchestra and two symphonies.

His chamber music includes several works for cello and piano as well as a Solo de concours for clarinet and piano — a virtuosic competition piece written in 1901 for Conservatoire contests.

Conservative as a composer, he was known for his mantra, "modernism is the enemy."

Selected list of works

• Procession nocturne, 'Symphonic poem after Nicolas Lenau", 1899
• Divertissement sur des chansons russes, 1899
• Job, oratorio, 1900
• La fille de Roland, opera, 1904
• Mârouf, savetier du Caire, opera, 1914
• L’appel de la mer, opera, 1924 (based on Riders to the sea by John Millington Synge)^[1]
• Rolande et le mauvais garçon, 1934
• Prélude et Toccata for piano and orchestra
• Eglogue
• Solo de Concours pour Clarinet et Piano

References

External links

• Solo de Concours for clarinet & piano – Duo “Istria” – (video)
• Free scores by Henri Rabaud in the International Music Score Library Project