maurice andre obituary

[alocispepraluger102]

maurice andre obituary

By MARGALIT FOX

Maurice André, a virtuoso credited with having transformed the trumpet from a workaday cog in the back of the orchestra into a seductive solo instrument in front, died on Feb. 25 in Bayonne, in southwest France. He was 78.

His family confirmed the death to the news agency Agence France-Presse, declining to specify the cause.

Mr. André, who began his professional life as a coal miner, was esteemed as a trumpeter for his warm, robust tone; lightning technique; and clarion high notes, whose stratospheric reaches could prompt waves of applause from audiences.

What potential for showmanship his gifts entailed was mitigated, most critics agreed, by his sensitive musicianship, which let him spin out lyrical, shapely lines much as a singer would.

By all accounts, Mr. André was to the trumpet what Jean-Pierre Rampal was to the flute or Pablo Casals to the cello: a player whose instrument, long considered a mainstay of the orchestral ark, became, in his hands, the fleet, dazzling tool of a concerto soloist.

Edited March 5, 2012 by alocispepraluger102

[Pete C]

I always loved his Haydn concerto. I'll give him a slight edge over Wynton