Adolphe Samuel

Adolphe-Abraham Samuel (11 July 1824 Liège, Belgium – 11 September 1898 Ghent, Belgium) was a Belgian music critic, teacher, conductor and composer.

Biography Adolphe-Abraham Samuel was born in Liège in an artistic family. His parents encouraged him to become a painter and he began studying at the age of seven. He received his earliest music education from his sister Caroline before studying solfège and piano with Etienne Soubre and Auguste Franck and the Royal Conservatory of Liège. At the age of twelve he performed in concerts organised by the Belgian violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot and his sister-in-law Pauline Viardot. Samuel's works of this time were influenced by Berlioz's style. Additionally Samuel published Berlioz's "Benvenuto Cellini" in Belgium. This friendship might have come to an end due to Samuel's support of the music of Richard Wagner. He died in Ghent. At the composer's wish, his mass was presented during his funeral. His son Eugene Samuel was also a composer.

Works Il a rêvé, comic opera, 1845 La Vendetta, Cantata, 1845 1st Symphony op.8, 1846 2nd Symphony op.9, 1847 Giovanni da Procida, Great Opera, 1847 Madeleine, comic opera, (libretto: Gustave Vaëz), 1850 Roland à Ronceveaux, Poème symphonique, 1850 Les Deux Précendants, comic opera, (libretto: Louis Schoonen), 1851 L'Heure de la retraite, Comic Opera, (Libretto: Eugène van Bemmel), 1854 Cantate du jubilée, cantata, 1855 L'Union fait la force, cantata, 1855 3rd Symphony op.28, 1858 Cantate nationale, cantata op.29, 1859 4th Symphony op.33, 1863 5th Symphony op.35, 1869 De Wederkomst, cantata, op.38, 1875 Leopold I, cantata, 1880 6th Symphony (Symphony à program) op. 44, 1889 7th Symphony "Christ" op. 48, 1893

Literature Thierry Levaux: Le Dictionnaire of the Compositeurs de Belgique du Moyen-Age à nos jours, S. 550-551, Editions: "Art in Belgium" 2006.