Édouard Lalo

Born: 1823
Died:
Education: Paris Conservatoire
Career: Armingaud Quartet

At the age of 16, douard Lalo took the momentous decision to defy his authoritarian father and without a penny to his name, leave his home in Lille to pursue a musical career in Paris. Having distinguished himself as a violin student in Lille, he could at least support himself by playing in concerts while attending Habaneck's violin classes at the Conservatoire and studying composition privately. He remained active as a violinist for much of his working life and as a member of the Armingaud Quartet, was instrumental in stimulating a new interest in chamber music in the 1850s. An admirer of Beethoven above all, but of Schubert and Schumann too, he wrote chamber pieces after those German models, not least the earliest string quartet by a French composer still in the repertoire.