Louis Lavoye: String Quartet No 2; Sonata for Violin and Piano

 Louis LAVOYE (Liège 1877 - Liège 1975)

String Quartet No.2 and Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2

Le Quartour de Liege

  Charles Jongen (Violin)-Juliette Poumay (Piano)

Louis Lavoye was born on August 13, 1877 in Liège where he also died on July 29, 1975. He enrolled at the Music Conservatoire in Liège in 1887, at the age of 10, and he was awarded there, successively, the 1st prize for solfeggio in 1892, the 1st prize for harmony in 1896 in the class of Sylvain Dupuis, the 1st price for the piano in 1897 in the class of Sydney Vantyn, the higher education diplomas for the piano in 1900 and for the organ in 1901 in the class of Charles Danneels, then the 1st prize for fugue in 1902. He was appointed a professor at the Conservatoire in Liège in 1908 and taught there solfeggio, the piano, then harmony from 1928, incidentally also the organ and the history of music. He was allowed to retire in 1942, but deputized in 1951 - in the organ class - for the appointed teacher Charles Hens who had left. He was also a music critic at the "La Meuse" newspaper, from 1922 to 1973.

As a virtuoso organist, he had been a student of Charles-Marie Widor in Paris, he produced numerous recitals in Belgium and abroad and he was the titular organist at the "Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste" Church where his Sunday performances were attended always by an appreciative audience.

A founding member of the Society for Musicology in Liège in 1909, Louis Lavoye became its president in 1945. Under his influence, the Society became involved in a variety of subjects, from plain-song to the dodecaphony theories. He was the first to emphasize the intrinsic musical value of Jean-Noël Hamal's Walloon operas. He undertook - in collaboration with José Quitin for the biographic part - the transcription of the motets of 8 voices of Lambert Coolen as contained in the Grand Chorale Book of Saint-Lambert (1645). Repeatedly, he defended vigorously the works of his friend Désiré Pâque for whom he felt deep admiration. Louis Lavoye was the author of a detailed study about the life and work of the Limburg composer Charles Smulders.

As a composer he was attracted by the "Franckist" model and the doctrines of the Schola Cantorum considered then as modern and even as revolutionary, compared to the not yet renovated teaching of the Conservatoire. Louis Lavoye subsequently endeavored to include in his musical language certain plain-song aspects, just as Maurice Emmanuel and Charles Koechlin. This was for the composer a way of expressing his thoughts in a language both quite ancient by the nature of the modes and quite new by the possibilities of harmonic progression provided. Louis Lavoye drew his inspiration from the freedom of modal harmonies, in the rigor of the fugue, with a constant concern for detail in writing and with extremely severe self-criticism. He wrote several works for the piano, for the organ, chamber and instrumental music, melodies and chorales, masses and operas based on Walloon librettos. Finally, he was also the author of a voluminous treaty of harmony, remarkable for its musical quality and poles apart from the traditional "academic" works.

Among the most remarkable works written by Louis Lavoye, we can mention the "Sonatine" for piano, dedicated to the memory of Paul Gilson (1943), the "Prelude and Fugue" (1941), the "Toccata" for organ (1939), the "Messe de mariage" (1955) for organ, "Jeux" for flute and piano (1932), the "Sonata "for trumpet and piano (1933) , two "Sonatas" for violin and piano (1937 and 1959), one "Concerto" for horn and piano (1935) and two "Stringquartets" (1943 et 1944), one "Requiem" for choirs, strings and organ (1916) and one "Mass" for female voices, strings and organ (1918).

Louis Lavoye had a considerable number of students and among these we could quote, with so many others, Berthe di Vito-Delvaux and Michel Leclerc.

This is my own LP Rip, of an original  record imported from Belgium, Flac encoded, and edited in tracks, Scans of sleeves notes and labels.
Thanks to my son for his help in editing and scannig.

Note that this is an old recording and sound is not so good.