New Millennium Strings
Concerts | Musicians | Rehearsals | Supporters | Board | Contact Us
Emmanuel Chabrier
Espana
Emmanuel Chabrier was born in France in 1841 and died in 1894. He studied law and was employed by the Ministry of the Interior in Paris from 1861-1880. Chabrier studied piano, harmony, and counterpoint, and devoted himself completely to music by 1880. He produced two operettas in 1877 and 1879. His orchestrations were colorful and his pictoral composition Espana made him famous in 1883. This concert was a turning point in his career when Lamoureux conducted Espana at the Opera. In 1884-1885 he became Lamoureux's assistant there as the chorus master. Chabrier's preoccupation was with the stage and he won much acclaim for his opera Le Roi Malgre Lui in 1887. He was part of a school of French composers who emerged after the First World War. Both Ravel and Debussey respected Chabrier's compositional talents and derived inspiration from him.
-- program notes by Laurien Jones