Simon Le Duc

Simon Le Duc, more commonly Leduc (Paris, 15 January 1742 – 22 January 1777), was a French violinist, soloist at the Concert Spirituel, music publisher and composer.[1] His younger brother, Pierre Le Duc (1755–1818), was also a violinist. Leduc was a pupil of the famous violinist and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, Pierre Gaviniès. He later became director of the Concerts Spirituel, with Gaviniès and François-Joseph Gossec

During the child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's first tour of Europe in 1763–64, Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart had a chance to hear Leduc play. Leopold, an authority on violin performance who had published a treatise on violin playing in 1756 which is still read today, praised Leduc in his travel diary: "He plays well."[2] Leduc also composed many pieces for violin, including at least two sets of violin sonatas (published as opuses 1 and 4), three violin concertos, and some chamber music.

In his survey of music of the galant period, Robert Gjerdingen notes strong similarities between Leduc's style and that of his Neapolitan contemporaries, especially Cimarosa.[3] Gjerdingen writes, "Leduc wrote highly refined music for small aristocratic gatherings in chambers and salons. The fluency and perfection of his style was matched by few others",[4] and he argues that Leduc's music was in the "mainstream" of eighteenth-century galant style, though it is mostly forgotten today.[5]

Works, editions and recordings

References

  1. ^ Harden, Jean. "Leduc: (1) Simon Leduc". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 August 2017. Harden notes that Leduc obtained a publishing privilege, but "Simon never published any works but his own"
  2. ^ Harden, Jean. "Leduc: (1) Simon Leduc". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 August 2017. Harden writes about Leduc: "He earned consistently favourable reviews in the Parisian press and received an understated compliment in Leopold Mozart's travel diary of 1763–4: 'He plays well'."
  3. ^ Gjerdingen, Robert O. (2007). Music in the Galant Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 286. Such a movement could easily have emanated from Naples, given the extent of its correspondence with Italian practice. In particular, Leduc's style has affinities with that of his slightly younger contemporary Cimarosa.
  4. ^ Gjerdingen 2007, p.286
  5. ^ Gjerdingen 2007, p. 289


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