Fernand Quinet

Fernand Quinet (born January 29, 1898 in Charleroi , † October 24, 1971 in Liège ) was a Belgian cellist , conductor and composer .

Live and act

Fernand Quinet came from a family of musicians, his father Joseph Quinet was a flute teacher at the Charleroi Conservatory and his sister taught piano there. Fernand Quinet began learning the cello at a young age. The director of the conservatory, Adolphe Biarent , recognized his talent and encouraged the young musician at an early age by teaching him composition. In 1910, at the age of 12, he came to the Brussels Conservatory , where he received his final diploma (Premier Prix) in cello a year later and the virtuosity prize in 1913. At the age of 13 he was able to contribute to his family's livelihood as a member of the orchestra of the Brussels Opera La Monnaie .

In 1912 he was a founding member of the "Quatuor Pro Arte", which mainly played contemporary music and to which he belonged until 1923. During this time he met Vincent d'Indy in Paris, with whom he appeared several times. In 1921 he received the first Prix ​​de Rome with his cantata La Guerre , having won a second prize a year earlier. Quinet cultivated friendships with numerous composers of his time, including Darius Milhaud , Florent Schmitt and Sergei Prokofjew .

In 1924 he became director of the Conservatory in his hometown Charleroi and in 1927 Professor of Harmony at the Brussels Conservatory. From 1935 he belonged to the composer group La Sirène founded by Jean Absil for the care of contemporary music, the counterpart of the group “Le Triton Parisien” active in France.

In 1938 Quinet became director of the Liège Conservatory, and during the German occupation between 1940 and 1944 he was able to protect numerous students from deportation or forced labor. From 1945 his international career began as a conductor. In 1947 he conducted the inauguration concert of UNESCO and made guest appearances in Poland, France and Czechoslovakia . In 1950 he went on a concert tour through the USA and a year later through the Soviet Union , where he gave concerts with soloists such as David Oistrach , Leonid Kogan , Emil Gilels and Mstislaw Rostropovich .

In Liège he founded a chamber orchestra, which in 1960 - enlarged - became the “ Orchester Philharmonique de Liège ” and is now one of the most important orchestras in Belgium. In 1963 he left his post as director of the conservatory to devote himself entirely to orchestral conducting and composition.

As a composer he was one of the first in Belgium to abandon the romantic style that had dominated until then and was influenced by César Franck . It was based, for example, on the style cultivated by Claude Debussy , Gabriel Fauré , Maurice Ravel or Igor Stravinsky .

In Quinet's catalog of works there are orchestral works, including a. 3 Mouvements symphoniques (1931), 3 Pièces pour orchester (1952), furthermore chamber music, a. a. a string quartet (1925), piano pieces and vocal works, including Les Moralités non légendaires for voice and 18 instruments (1926) and piano songs.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of the Liège Orchestra ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
2. ↑ Thierry Levaux et al .: Dictionnaire des compositeurs de Belgique du Moyen Age à nos jours kind in Belgium, Brussels 2006, ISBN 2-930338-37-7 , pp 509-512.