PAUL BAZELAIRE
(1886 - 1958)

Paul Bazelaire, as gifted a pianist as he was a cellist, began cello lessons at seven with Clarinval (director of the Philharmonic Company of Sedan). Three years later he went to Jules Delsart at the Paris Conservatoire, where he also won prizes in harmony, composition and counterpoint. Bazelaire himself became an instrumental professor at the Conservatoire and an influential teacher, writing a number of important publications including one concerning the relationship between technical study and musical expression. His Études transcendentales, virtuosic elaborations of mid-nineteenth-century studies by Kummer, demonstrate advancements in cello technique during Bazelaire’s time; he also composed over a hundred pieces, including some for piano solo.

Biography from www.naxos.com June 2016