George Onslow

George Onslow (to pronounce onzlo ) is a type-setter French, born with Clermont-Ferrand the July 27th 1784 and deceased in this same city the October 3rd 1853.

It is a singular figure of the history of the music: very largely and unanimously recognized of alive sound, he is so to speak forgotten today and its work, primarily devoted to the Chamber music for cords, is quasi absent from repertory since more than one century in modern edition.

Biography

(This summary biographical takes as a starting point the note written by Baudime Jam for the site of George Onslow and consultable in the following page: Summarized biography.)

George Onslow is resulting from a former family of the English aristocracy, whose several members played a big role in the British political life (three of them were announcer with the House of Commons).

His/her father, Edouard, came to settle with Clermont-Ferrand in 1781 following a family scandal which had constrained it to leave its native ground. Quickly integrated in the notability clermontoise, Onslow carry out a peaceful life until 1789, date on which the Revolution comes to compromise their safety. Imprisoned in 1793 because of its nationality, and in spite in its complicity with Couthon of which he was brother in masonry, he is thorough with the exile in 1797. His/her oldest son, George, accompanies it in what will become for him a study trip.

Between 1798 and 1806, he studies the piano near several Masters, in particular Johann Baptist Cramer, Jan Ladislav Dussek and Nicolas-Joseph Hüllmandel which teaches with London; stays in Germany and Austria enable him to perfect its training of instrumentalist. He does not intend himself yet for the artistic career, and even less with that of type-setter: the study of the piano is only one of the aspects of its education, as well as mathematics, the History, the fencing, horsemanship, the drawing (two of his/her brothers were devoted to painting), etc From the point of view of his/her parents, it acts more of a talent of living room that of a professional competence: remainder, it never occurred in recital as a pianist, and it is only in Clermont that it accepted time with other to make applaud his gifts of improviser. He also practices the violoncello as an amateur in order to supplement a quartet of friends with which he practiced the repertory of the Masters (Mozart, Haydn, the young person Beethoven). It is by hearing the opening of Stratonice , an opera of Méhul, which he discovers his vocation of type-setter: he is then 22 years old. Its first test, a collection of three quintets, gains such a success that his/her friends, its interpreters and Camille Pleyel, its editor, encourage it to persevere. Quartets and trios follow at once, but it measures its gaps quickly and decides to supplement its theoretical knowledge while recovering to the good care of Anton Reicha which was its only and single Master from composition. Its influence was to appear decisive, as well esthetic point of view as stylistic.

It then starts a brilliant career which quickly makes of him a type-setter impossible to circumvent of the musical life of first half of the 19th century: the largest interpreters register it with their repertory and his name côtoie those of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven which one estimates that it is the worthy one and single successor. Called French Beethoven , it is only, at least in France, to devote itself to the chamber music: with 36 quartets and 34 quintets , it leaves an exceptional production which feeds during more than five decades the principal European companies of concert, while making the beautiful days of the editors to the United States (Schirmer).

It is especially in Germany that it meets the greatest favor: registered with the Pantheon of Germanic glories, he enjoys an exceptional favor near the musicians and the public, whose Mendelssohn and Schumann was the alive witnesses. Nonglad to join together the votes of its contemporaries, and to profit from a not very common leading diffusion, he also enjoys a broad institutional recognition: member of the majority of the philharmonic companies of Europe, it was elected in 1842 with the Académie of the Art schools, in front of Berlioz in particular.

At one time when, with Paris in particular, one cultivated especially the taste of the light comedy and the Op3era Comique, it incarnates the continuity of the traditional university and is used as alibi with holding of a decline of the music in a context marked by the " privatization" musical life. The evenings of quartet of Baillot to Paris, Lindley with London, and of Zimmermann with Berlin were regarded as the last refuges of the " true musique" and he became the herald of the defenders of the tradition and of excellence instrumental against the drifts which represented, in their eyes, the lovesongs, square them and other musics of entertainment. It does not compose of them less three operas, thorough at the same time by its curiosity and the concern of sitting its fame ( the Mayor of Véga , 1824, the Hawker , 1827, and the Duke of Own way , 1837): in spite of their programming in the Favart room, the witnesses of their creation are unanimous to consider that they would have deserved to be gone up to the Opera. Its lyric partitions were of a density and from a complexity unusual for the public of the time and, in the absence of booklet of great quality (crippling criterion at the time), they did not obtain that a success of regard, in spite of the fact that they were greeted by the critic, and in particular Berlioz which defended the Duke of Own way with enthusiasm. In its instrumental music and orchestral, it precedes the romanticism by the richness of its harmony, the preponderance of the chromatisms, the tempestuous and tormented temperament of its writing and the enthusiasm of its lyric topics: the difficulty of execution of its quartets and quintets, already known of its time, constitutes one of the reasons for their abandonment by the interpreters. While having had a brilliant international career, and in spite of the requests increasingly more, there remains faithful to the Auvergne since, born with Clermont-Ferrand, he is also deceased in this same city, which distinguishes it from the artists " gone up to Paris ". Very attached to the capital auvergnate, appreciated for its generosity (concerts of benevolence, participation in good works, etc), and its courteous and gracious character, it makes flash back on Clermont all the prestige of its name, without its music never really not being appreciated there and is included/understood. He was a lord of the manor respected and surrounded by benevolence: true gentleman farmer , it puts as much talent to manage its properties than to negotiate its contracts with Breitkopf & Härtel or Maurice Schlesinger.

While having a residence in the countryside (castle of Chalendrat with Mirefleurs then of Bellerive with Pérignat-on-To combine), it always preserved its apartments at Clermont: first of all place Michel of Hospital (which was still called place of the Market to wood at the beginning of the 19th century, then street Pascal, with number 2, where he dies. It rests with the cemetery of the Carmelite friars, beside some of the big families auvergnates and one can read there on a plate the sentence of Hector Berlioz (1829): Since the death of Beethoven, it holds the sceptre of the instrumental music .

To listen to its music

The music of George Onslow is still too seldom with the poster in the concerts, in particular in what it has of more remarkable: chamber music for cords. 36 quartets and 34 quintets form the heart of its musical catalog and were at the origin of its fame everywhere in Europe and near the largest interpreters of its time. Nowadays, and after the redécouverte that made of it Carl de Nys with the participation of the Parrenin Quartet in the years 1970-80, some units punctually registered some partitions of Onslow to their repertory (Quartet Debussy, Quatuor Coull, Quatuor of Oxford, Archibudelli). Two quartets in particular are devoted since many years to the rehabilitation of the work of Onslow: the Mandelring Quartet, which recorded several CD, and the Quatuor Preceded Vista which is also founder of the Onslow Evenings (a festival of summer) and Day Onslow (an annual demonstration) where one can listen to the music of Onslow .

In a letter addressed to its Kistner editor dated April 18th, 1847 - collection of the castle of Aulteribe (close to Sermentizon in the Puy-de-Dôme), George Onslow indicates that it has just written a transcription for string quartet which constitutes its opus 60 (37e quartet) named the Duke of Own way .

Here an extract of the Trio by the Quartet Preceded Vista (First world recording).

Catalog its works

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