Philippe Gaubert

Born in the south of France (in the village of Cahors) in 1879, Philippe Gaubert was a flautist, conductor and composer. He isn't listed in my 1980 edition of New Groves, but was listed in my 1940 edition (when he was still alive, just); he also made it into the 2001 re-print of the New Groves… so clearly, his time in post-death musical purgatory seems to have come to an end somewhat recently.

His family moved to Paris aged 6, and his mother got a job as housekeeper to one Paul Taffanel -who happened to be Professor of Flute at the Paris Conservatory. Philippe thus began to study with Taffanel from an early age, winning a Conservatory first prize for flute in 1894. He joined the orchestra of the Paris Opéra in 1897 and was a renowned soloist. Encouraged by Taffanel, he began to pursue a parallel career as a conductor from 1904 onwards. He also studied composition and won second prize in the Prix de Rome in 1905.

Aged forty, he was appointed Professor of flute in the Conservatoire de Paris, principal conductor of the Paris Opéra and principal conductor of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, making him a central figure of post-WW1 French music. He retained these positions until his death from a stroke in 1941, just a few days after his 62nd birthday. My copy of the 1940 Groves says of him that his early success as conductor has somewhat overshadowed the other aspects of his artistic personality. Since 1919 he has been a very popular conductor of the orchestra of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, and since 1920 at the Opéra, where he chiefly gives new works and a Wagnerian repertory.

His musical output is largely centered around the flute, of course, but there is other chamber music to enjoy, as well as a fair quantity of larger orchestral music. New Groves says of him that “Gaubert’s idiom and sense of form is not especially original, but is of a distinctive quality: assured but not complacent and always graceful. The influence of both Fauré and Debussy is evident, though not in the form of slavish imitation”. I must say that I find those words somewhat underwhelming: my own experience of his orchestral music, at least, is that it comes across as beautifully constructed and with a sense of grandeur that is monumental and inspiring.