Henri Casadesus

Henri Casadesus (September 30, 1879 – May 31, 1947) was a violist and music publisher. He was the brother of Marius Casadesus, uncle of the famous pianist Robert Casadesus, and grand-uncle of Jean Casadesus. He founded the Society of Ancient Instruments with Camille Saint-Saëns in 1901. The society, which operated between 1901 and 1939, was a quintet of performers who used obsolete instruments such as the viola da gamba, or Casadesus's own instrument, the viola d'amore.

The quintet was also notable in its day for premiering rediscovered works by long-dead composers. It was later discovered that Casadesus and his brothers, notably Marius Casadesus, wrote these works. The Adélaïde Concerto, allegedly by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Henri but is actually by Marius.

However, Henri is thought to have been the author of a "Concerto in D Major for Viola" ascribed to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, described by Rachel W. Wade in Appendix B of her "Keyboard Concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach" (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1981), pp. 279-82. This concerto appeared in 1911 in a Russian edition, allegedly "transcribed...for small orchestra by Maximilian Steinberg," and was subsequently performed by conductors such as Darius Milhaud and Serge Koussevitsky, and recorded by both Felix Prohaska and Eugene Ormandy. "Thus," Wade wrote in 1981, "at the present time, the most frequently recorded concerto of C.P.E. Bach is a spurious one."

Henri is also credited with the "Handel Concerto" and the "J.C. Bach Concerto," which are both for viola as well. These are now used in the Suzuki method for viola, and are often referred to as "The Handel/Casadesus Concerto" and "The J.C. Bach/Casadesus Concerto". Scholarly criticism has confirmed that both these concerti were written by Henri Casadesus in the style of their purported composers.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/2107/viola/casadesu.html "Handel Concerto" by Henri Casadesus]
* [http://www.casadesus.com/UK/famille/henri-casadesus.html Henri Casadesus: Composer, Conductor]