Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht
Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht was born on 17 September 1880 in Paris (France). His father was a studied violist and played in the orchestra of the Paris opera. Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht also showed musical talent and studied at the Paris conservatory under Antoine Taudou.
After his studies Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht first worked as a violinist at the Concerts de l'Opera and as a substitute violinist at the Concerts Berlioz under the conductor Pierre Monteux, a close friend of him. He also worked as a conductor and in 1908 premiered the work "La tragedie de Salome" by Florent Schmitt. This performance was a great success and offered him further conducting options. In 1911 Claude Debussy asked him to conduct the first performance of Le martyre de St. Sebastien which put Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht into a career as a conductor. Over the years he conducted different orchestras like the Ballets Suedois (1920-23), the Opera-Comique (1923-25 and 1932-33), the Concerts Pasdeloup (1928-1932), the Opera Algiers (1929-30) and the Paris Opera (1945-50). Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht founded the Orchestre National de France in 1934 and remained its principal conductor till 1944 and again from 1951 to 1958. With his work he became one of the leading French conductors of the first half of the 20th century and premiered and recorded many important compositions.
As a composer Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht was self-taught. His work catalogue contains many orchestral compositions, also some stage works, chamber music, choral works and film music.
Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht died on 14 February 1965 in Paris (France).
In my possession is the autograph manuscript for the composition "La Princesse chante" for voice and harp by Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht. The work was composed in 1936 and is dedicated to the soprano Odette Turba-Rabier. Interestingly the singer is only vocalising in this composition, there is no linguistic text. The instrumentation and the vocalising is pretty unique, nonetheless I could not find any information about the history and context of this composition.
