René Guillou

René-Alfred-Octave Guillou (8 October 1903 in Rennes – 14 December 1958 in Paris) was a French composer and pianist.

Hailed as a prodigy aged 7, in an article in Musical America from 1912, Guillou is described as a virtuoso pianist and composer of piano works, quartets and a high mass. He was described as 'the heir of Mozart'.

After several years at the conservatory of his native city, Guillou studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau, Charles-Marie Widor and Henri Busser. In his third participation in the competition for the Prix de Rome, he won the Premier Grand Prix in 1926 with the cantata L'Autre mère.

Besides, since 1920, Guillou was the successor of Jacques de La Presle, organist at the great organ of the Church of Notre-Dame, Versailles, restored by Merklin. In 1923 he played the organ part here in a performance of the oratorio Marie-Madeleine by Jules Massenet. In 1926 he handed over the post to Madeleine Heurtel, a niece of Léon Boëllmann and daughter of the director of the École Niedermeyer, in order to begin his stay in the Villa Medici in Rome, associated with the Prix de Rome.

During his stay in Rome until 1930, Guillou composed his Habenera for violin and orchestra; in addition, he composed two symphonies and other orchestral works, chamber music and songs.

At the French Music Festival in Monte Carlo in 1935, Guillou accompanied the renowned soprano Elisabeth Schumann, performed solo piano recitals, and accompanied the Monte Carlo String Quartet in a performance of his Piano Quintet. His Élégie, for English horn and orchestra, was also performed at the festival.

In May 1946, he and the French composer Jean Yatove, sponsored a then largely unknown Francois Gilbert, the pseudonym of Gilbert Silly, for his admission to SACEM as a composer. Francois Gilbert was later to change his pseudonym once more to Gilbert Bécaud.

His brother Ernest Guillou became known as a conductor and composer.

Guillou died in Paris in 1956.

Works Les Amants de Vérone, cantata, 1924 L’Autre mère, cantata, 1926 Élégie for viola (or English horn) and piano, 1927 Habanera for violin and orchestra, 1927 with the Concerts Lamoureux Pièces for piano, 1927 Assise for piano, 1928 Puisque j'ai mis ma lèvre after a poem by Victor Hugo, 1928 at the Académie de France à Rome Mezzogiorno - Midi sur Rome 1929 at the Lyceum Romano Andante symphonique for pipe organ, 1929 Cortège de nonnes for organ, 1929 Loetitia Pia for organ, 1929 Nocturne mystique for organ, 1929 Diurnes for piano, 1929 Plein air for piano, 1929 Quatre pièces for piano, 1929 Suite des motifs de terroir for piano, 1929 Trois pièces for violin and piano, 1931 Quintette pour piano, deux violons, alto et violoncelle, 1932 Adagio et Suite for piano and cello, 1934 Élégie for English horn and orchestra, 1935 Ballade for bassoon and piano, 1936 Hymne de la Bretagne à Paris, for the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris, 1937 Hymne funèbre, with the Concerts Colonne 1938 Sonatine for alto saxophone, English horn or French horn and piano, 1946 Symphonie en la mineur, 1948 Mon nom est Rolande, Legend for French horn and piano, 1950 Seconde Symphonie en ut majeur, 1956 Pierre-Michel Le Conte conducting