André Dulaurens: Morceau de Concert for double bass & piano

About the Composition

Morceau de Concert was composed in 1922 as the imposed work for the graduating double bassists at the Paris Conservatoire. Long forgotten, it was dedicated to Édouard Nanny, the much respected double bass teacher at the Conservatoire, and, typical of a test piece, it has many musical and technical challenges, sudden changes of mood, employing much of the solo range of the instrument. 

Aimed at the intermediate-advanced bassist, the one-movement piece is lyrical and dramatic, inventive and atmospheric, with a strongly independent piano accompaniment that adds color and momentum to a work that is worthy of rediscovery in the 21st-century.

2022 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Édouard Nanny and a perfect time to explore the repertoire commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire.

About the Composer
André Dulaurens, a French violinist and composer, was born in Bordeaux in 1873 and died in Paris in 1932, and was a fairly prolific composer of instrumental and vocal music. Many works by Dulaurens were published by the leading French publishing houses of the day, although some were self-published from his appropriately named address in Paris (63, avenue Mozart). A number of his works are still in print, but his name seems to have been gradually forgotten since his death ninety years ago.