Adolphe Blanc
Adolphe Blanc (1828–1885) was a French composer of chamber music in the Romantic tradition of private hausmusik. Largely overlooked in a Paris dominated by opera, he left a substantial body of trios, quartets, quintets and related works.
Born in Manosque, he entered the Paris Conservatoire as a violin student at thirteen and later conducted at the Théâtre Lyrique (1855–1860). He was awarded the Prix Chartier in 1862. His refined output includes string trios and quartets, many piano trios, piano quartets and quintets, songs, choral and orchestral pieces, and a one-act comic opera. The Sonata for horn and piano, Op. 43, written when Paris still favoured the natural horn, is recorded on Evenings with the French Horn (MCD 640).
Compositions by Adolphe Blanc appear on
Evenings with the French Horn
Mark Papworth (natural and valved horns) and Rosa Scaffidi (piano) play Berlioz and Blanc in repertoire that sets the two French horn types of the late nineteenth century side by side.