Description

ARTHUR DE GREEF (LOUVAIN, BELGIUM 10 OCTOBER 1862 – BRUSSELS, BELGIUM 29 AUGUST 1940)

 

 

 

 

Born in Louvain, he won first prize in a local music competition at the age of 11 and subsequently enrolled at the Brussels Conservatoire. His main teacher there was Louis Brassin, a former pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, although he also took lessons from other staffers at the institution, including Joseph Dupont, François-Auguste Gevaert and Fernand Kufferath. After graduating with high distinction from the Conservatoire at the age of 17, De Greef went to Weimar to complete his studies under Franz Liszt. He was a pupil of Liszt for two years. Following the Weimar sojourn, De Greef embarked on a career as a concert pianist, travelling widely. He was a friend of Edvard Grieg, whose Piano Concerto he had played publicly in 1898, and who called him “the best performer of my music I have met with”. In addition, he enjoyed the endorsement of Camille Saint-Saëns. British critic Jonathan Woolf has written: “De Greef was, in all respects, an intensely musical, non-sensationalist, eloquent and impressive musician and whilst not being averse to some of the interventionist tactics of his contemporaries (retouching of the score) remained sympathetically self-effacing”. De Greef composed a sizeable quantity of music, virtually all of which is now unknown. Among his works are two piano concertos. He was a devoted teacher, and taught piano at the Brussels Conservatoire for many years.

 

 

TRACKLIST 

 

 

1168 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUMANN – Papillons, Op. 2

1180 WELTE-MIGNON WAGNER-BRASSIN – Siegmund’s Love Song from Opera “Die Walküre”

1181 WELTE-MIGNON WAGNER-BRASSIN – Entrance into Valhalla from Opera “Das Rheingold”

02 DUO-ART – AEOLIAN CO., LTD (ENGLAND) GRIEG – Puck, Op. 71, No. 3 “Lyric Pieces”

04 DUO-ART – AEOLIAN CO., LTD (ENGLAND) GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28, No. 3 (4 Album Leaves)

0221 DUO-ART MOSZKOWSKI – Etude, Op. 18, No. 3

7222 DUO-ART GRIEG – Puck, Op. 71, No. 3 “Lyric Pieces”

PHONOLA GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28 No. 1

PHONOLA GRIEG – Album Leaf, Op. 28 No. 2

PHONOLA GRIEG – Berceuse, Op. 38 No. 1

PHONOLA GRIEG – Papillon, Op. 43 No. 1