Marie-Françoise Bucquet (28 October 1937 – 15 August 2018) was a French

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Biography

Born in

Montivilliers Montivilliers ( or ) is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A large light industrial and farming town by the banks of the river Lézarde in the Pays de Caux, situated just north of ...

, Marie-Françoise Bucquet began her studies at the

Vienna Music Academy The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

and continued this tradition by further studies with Central European musicians: the eminent pianist

Wilhelm Kempff Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991) was a German pianist, teacher and composer. Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interp ...

and later another eminent pianist,

Alfred Brendel Alfred Brendel (born 5 January 1931) is a Czech-born Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is noted for his performances of Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. Biography Brendel was born in Wizemberk, Czechoslovakia ...

. The influence of Edouard Steuermann and Max Deutsch, who were both pupils of

Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-century classical music, ...

, and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

made her also a specialist in 20th-century music. Composers such as

Betsy Jolas Elizabeth Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a Franco-American composer. Life and career Jolas was born in Paris on 5 August 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, also studied singing. Together with Betsy's father, the poet and j ...

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...

and

Sylvano Bussotti Sylvano Bussotti (1 October 1931 – 19 September 2021) was an Italian composer of contemporary classical music, also a painter, set and costume designer, opera director and manager, writer and academic teacher. His compositions employ graphic n ...

wrote works especially for her. Repeated concert tours which Bucquet made as a soloist and with orchestra ranged over much of the world. For the Philips label she recorded works by, among others,

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, '' Carmen'', which has become ...

, Bartók,

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

and

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

. In 1976 she was awarded an Edison for one of her Schoenberg recordings. She gave numerous master classes in Italy, Spain, the United States, Japan, and (regularly from 1988) the Netherlands, the last-named being The International Holland Music Sessions. From 1986 till her death, Bucquet was professor of piano at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

where she was appointed Head of the Pedagogical Department and member of the Board in 1991. In 1979 she formed a duo with her husband, baritone

Jorge Chaminé Jorge Chaminé (born 30 April 1956) is a Portuguese operatic baritone. Biography Of Spanish and Portuguese parentage, Chaminé was born in Porto. He began his musical studies (piano, voice, cello, guitar, choral and orchestra conducting) at an ...

. Their discography includes several award-winning recordings: songs by

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...

(Lyrinx-Harmonia Mundi); songs by

Carlos Guastavino Carlos Guastavino (5 April 1912 – 29 October 2000) was an Argentine composer, considered one of the foremost composers of his country. His production amounted to over 500 works, most of them songs for piano and voice, many still unpublished. Hi ...

(Movieplay Classics); songs by various composers to Hebrew texts (ADDA) and, in 2002, Spanish-language songs by Falla, Joaquin Turina and the Cuban Joaquin Nin. This last release was for, again, Lyrinx-Harmonia Mundi. Along with her husband, Bucquet organised each year an Atelier Musical in Paris, this event having been held in collaboration with the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, and having involved special lessons in interpretation and performance. In addition, she served as jury member at many international piano competitions, among them the International Piano Competition in Dublin. She died in August 2018.

References

External links

The International Holland Music Sessions 2005: Faculty Members and Accompanists
1937 births 2018 deaths People from Montivilliers Musicians from Normandy Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris 20th-century French women classical pianists 20th-century French classical pianists 21st-century French women classical pianists 21st-century French classical pianists Contemporary classical music performers French music educators French women music educators {{classical-pianist-stub