Marcel Landowski

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Marcel Landowski, 1985

Marcel Landowski (born February 18, 1915 in Pont-l'Abbé , † December 23, 1999 in Paris ) was a French composer and cultural politician. His father was the then world-famous sculptor Paul Landowski , whose mother was a descendant of the violinist and composer Henri Vieuxtemps .

Landowski, who showed great musical talent at an early age, studied piano with Marguerite Long in Paris , then composition at the Conservatoire de Paris . When Pierre Monteux , who performed his first works, he took to instruction in conducting. From 1962, Landowski, who had been one of the most important living composers in France since the late 1940s, held increasingly important cultural and political posts in the musical field, which he was given by André Malraux , Minister of Culture Charles de Gaulle . In 1975 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts . Indeed, for nearly twenty years (until the left came to power under François Mitterrand in 1981) , Landowski had a decisive influence on the organization of classical music festivals, management of orchestras and, first of all, musical training in France, focusing on the left-wing and made progressive colleagues rather unpopular. The most notorious was the much-commented scandal with Pierre Boulez .

Landowski wrote, among other things, five symphonies , the political and philosophical operas Le Rire de Nils Halerius , Le Fou , Montségur and 1996 for Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya Galina, as well as concertante works, etc. a. for Ondes Martenot and for cello , the latter as a sign of friendship for Mstislaw Leopoldowitsch Rostropowitsch , the husband of the aforementioned "Galina".

From the 1940s Landowski also worked for film, he composed the film music for more than 50 feature films and television productions.

Landowski practiced a musically moderately modern, rhythmically sophisticated language in the style of his role models Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud .

Landowski had three children, the musician and singer Manon Landowski , the architect Marc Landowski and Anne Landowski, director of music and dance in the Ministry of Culture.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1947: L'homme traqué
  • 1947: Quartier chinois
  • 1947: Les beaux jours du roi Murat
  • 1947: stylet
  • 1948: Le secret de Monte-Cristo
  • 1949: Lonely Sunday (Sombre Dimanche)
  • 1949: Gigi
  • 1950: Chéri
  • 1950: La rue sans loi
  • 1951: La passante
  • 1952: The life of Jesus (La vie de Jésus)
  • 1954: Gamin de Paris
  • 1954: Crime au Concert Mayol
  • 1955: Boulevard du crime
  • 1956: Password Sarah (Alerte au deuxième bureau)
  • 1957: The coffin came in the mail (Les violents)
  • 1957: DL spy ring (Deuxième bureau contre inconnu)
  • 1958: Rapt au deuxième bureau
  • 1959: minute papillon
  • 1960: The House of 1000 Windows (La 1000ème fenêtre)
  • 1960: Reporters, Murder and Mannequins (La dragée haute)
  • 1961: Virgins of Rome (Le vergini di Roma)
  • 1962: Candide (TV movie)

Web links

Sources, image and sound documents

  • Les Landowski, une famille d'artistes à Boulogne-Billancourt. Musique, Sculpture, Architecture, Peinture, Chant, Poésie . (CD-ROM) Espace Landowski, Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt 1998.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marcel Landowski in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  2. ^ Les Landowski, une famille d'artistes à Boulogne-Billancourt . CD-ROM, 1998.
personal data
SURNAME Landowski, Marcel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French composer and cultural politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Pont-l'Abbé , France
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1999
Place of death Paris , France