Henri-Joseph de Croes

Henricus Josephus de Croes, Hendrik Jozef de Croes, known as Henri-Joseph de Croes (Brussels, 1748 – Regensburg, 1842) was a Flemish composer and violinist. He was Kapellmeister of the court orchestra of the Thurn und Taxis in Regensburg. He composed symphonies, various clarinet concertos, partitas, divertimenti and a Singspiel or opera.

Life De Croes was born in Brussels as the son of Henri-Jacques de Croes. His father, originally from Antwerp, was a composer and violinist who had been the Kapellmeister of the Thurn und Taxis family in Frankfurt on Main and had then accepted a similar position at the Royal Chapel of the Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, governor of the Austrian Netherlands in Brussels. Henri-Joseph was trained by his father as a violinist and the father and son played together duets composed by the father. He was hired in 1776 at a salary of 400 florins. It was Karl Anselm, Prince von Thurn und Taxis, a great lover of music, who engaged him for the orchestra. The hiring of the promising violist de Croes fitted in perfectly with the Prince's aim of building it into a first-rate orchestra. He also collected an extensive musical library. The orchestra's members included some of the leading musicians of the time such as the French viol player Joseph Touchemoulin, the Bohemian violin player Franz Xaver Pokorny, the Italian flautist Fiorante Agustinelli and the Italian oboist Giovanni Palestrini. Theodor von Schacht was at the time of de Croes' appointment the Kapellmeister of the orchestra. Von Schacht was a decent composer and producer of German and Italian operas as well as an excellent administrator of the Regensburg court orchestra. In this period courts were competing with each other through their support for the arts including court music. Prince Karl Anselm's efforts were successful. The Thurn und Taxis orchestra at Regensburg was ranked as one of the best in German-speaking territories in the late 18th century. Its sole rivals were the Hofkapelle in Mannheim and the orchestra of the Esterházy with Joseph Haydn at its Kapellmeister. The Kapellmeister von Schacht was frequently employed on diplomatic missions and as a result the daily management of the orchestra passed in the hands of Touchemoulin. After the retirement or dismissal of Touchemoulin in 1799, de Croes took over the role of the Kapellmeister of the orchestra. The court orchestra was disbanded on 31 October 1806 as a result of the combined effects of the death of Prince Karl Anselm, the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the Napoleonic Wars. De Croes experienced personal tragedy as two of his children died, a tragedy which was followed in 1806 by the death of his wife. He remained in Regensburg but is not believed to have no longer composed much.

He died in 1842 in Regensburg.

In his partitas de Croes uses the middle voices, in particular the violas, to create a dark, sensitive sound. He wrote a few pieces for an instrument that is currently no longer used in concert practice, the clarinet d'amore. He also wrote a solo concerto for bassoon, adding to the quite limited repertoire for this instrument.

Selected discography Henri Joseph De Croes, Concerto For Clarinet & Partias, Vlad Weverbergh (director), South-west German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim*, Sebastian Tewinkel, Aliud, 2010 Henri Joseph De Croes, Divertimenti, Vlad Weverbergh (director), Terra Nova Collective, Vlad Records, 2012 Henri Joseph De Croes, The Return of the Clarinetto D'amore, Vlad Weverbergh (director), Terra Nova Collective, Et'cetera, 2019 Henri-Joseph de Croes, Symphonies and Concertos, Vlad Weverbergh (director), Terra Nova Collective, Et'cetera, 2019