Michel Blavet
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Michel Blavet
(b Bescançon, bap. 13 March 1700; d Paris, 28 Oct 1768). French flautist and composer. He rose to an unrivalled position in Parisian musical life, widely admired for his tone and technique, and played often at the Concert Spirituel. Later he also served the Count of Clermont and played in the Musique du Roi and at the Opéra. Many Italian features appear in his compositions, which include 12 flute sonatas and six flute duets (1728-40), concertos, arrangements for teaching, and four stage works; the pasticcio Le jaloux corrigé (1752) was the first work with recitative of the Italian type instead of the French.
AMG AllMusic Guide to Classical Music :
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Michel Blavet
Biography
The foremost flutist of the mid eighteenth century, Michel Blavet mastered his primary instrument and the bassoon without any formal instruction. In the employ of Duke Charles-Eugène Lévis, Blavet moved to Paris in 1723. Within three years, he made his debut at the Concert Spirituel, where during the next quarter century he would appear more often than any other soloist. Acclaimed for his singing tone and brilliant technique, Blavet drew praise from Telemann, Quantz, and even Voltaire. His sometime performing partner Jean-Marie Leclair probably wrote his flute concerto and nine flute sonatas especially for Blavet. Blavet was a composer himself, noted mainly for his flute sonatas, which developed from the French violin sonata style. His first works bear some resemblance to Corelli's chamber sonatas, but his later sonatas take up the new galant style. His sole surviving flute concerto, though, smacks of Vivaldi in the outer movements. Several of Blavet's sonatas were openly pedagogical, his Recueils de pièces surveying a variety of styles at varying levels of difficulty. Blavet also wrote several songs and four major stage works, the latter for private performance at the chateau of the Count of Clermont. Blavet jettisoned the arioso recitative that had been de rigeur in French music since Lully, adopting a more Italianate manner and thus taking the Italian side in the famous Querelle des bouffons. ~ James Reel, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
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Michel Blavet
Michel Blavet (March 13, 1700 – October 28, 1768) was a French composer and flute virtuoso born in Besançon, France. Although Blavet taught himself to play almost every instrument, he specialized in the bassoon and the flute which he held to the left, the opposite of how most flutists hold theirs today.
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Life
The son of a wood turner, a profession which he followed for some time, he accidentally became the possessor of a flute and soon became the finest player in France. Blavet was famous for maintaining impeccable intonation, even when he played in difficult keys, and for the beauty of his tone. Voltaire expressed his admiration for his playing and Marpurg spoke of him as a virtuoso of the highest excellence who preserved his innate modesty notwithstanding the unbroken popularity that he enjoyed.
By the time he was forty years old, Blavet had been the principal flute in both Louis XV's personal musical ensemble, the "Musique du Roi", and the Paris Opera orchestra. Blavet turned down a post in Frederick the Great's court (which Quantz eventually accepted after the pay had been increased significantly).
Musical works
Blavet wrote primarily for the flute, in the so-called 'Italian' as well as the French style. His surviving works include a concerto and three books of sonatas. All of his works are written only in the easiest keys, since he wrote them for amateurs to play. They are unquestionably some of the most delightfully written chamber works ever composed for the flute. They exude happiness and are a delight to play. Quantz writes of Blavet " His amiable disposition and engaging manner gives rise to a lasting friendship between us and I am much indebted to him for his numerous acts of kindness".
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Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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AMG AllMusic Guide to Classical Music
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Jean-Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville
(Classical Artist)
L'Insinuante: Flute Music by Michel Blavet
(Classical Album)
Jed Wentz
(Classical Musician)
Flute Concerto No. 7 in E minor
(Classical Work)
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