Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur

[Spineur]

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur (19 November 1908 – 2 July 2002) was a French organist and composer. His proper name was Jean-Yves-Daniel Lesur, but he was known often simply known as Daniel-Lesur. His mother, Alice Lesur, was an accomplished composer in her own right; some of her music was published.

He entered the Paris Conservatory at age 11, studying solfège with Emile Schwartz, harmony with Jean Gallon, and composition with Georges Caussade. He also took private lessons in piano with Armand Ferté and composition with Charles Tournemire.[1] From 1935 to 1964, he was professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum under director Nestor Lejeune, becoming director himself in 1957.

In 1936, he co-founded the group La Jeune France along with composers Olivier Messiaen (with whom he would remain a lifelong friend), André Jolivet and Yves Baudrier, who were attempting to re-establish a more human and less abstract form of composition. La Jeune France developed from the avant-garde chamber music society La spirale, formed by Jolivet, Messiaen, and Daniel-Lesur the previous year.

That same year he, together with Jean Langlais and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, gave the first performance of Olivier Messiaen's La Nativité du Seigneur.[2]

Between 1927 and 1937 he seconded Tournemire at the organ of Ste. Clotilde, Paris, and was organist of the Benedictine Abbey of Paris, 1937–44. Daniel-Lesur also served as director of the Opéra National de Paris from 1971 to 1973.

His opera Andrea del Sarto (1968) received the composition prize of the City of Paris in 1969. In 1973, he received the Prix Samuel Rousseau of the Académie des Beaux Arts. In 1982, he was elected member of the Institut de France.

[Spineur]

His availiable discography is unfortunatly limited:
- Le cantique des cantiques
- Symphony of dances for strings piano and timbals

You can hear some excerpts from the centre de musique contenporaine

http://www.musiquecontemporaine.fr/fr/search?disp=all&query=Daniel-Lesur&exp_inl=on&exp_aud=on&so=ta

and there are clips on Utube

Here is a little present from me (59 Mb)

http://www.nitroflare.com/view/00D25F7A8CAFF30/DanielLesurSerenade.zip

The adagio is a killer.  Almost as good as Samuel Barber's

[pjme]

Lesur's Suite mediévale ( harp, flute string trio) is a gorgeous work in late-impressionistic style :

https://www.youtube.com/v/lhB0c-cGuOU

From Wiki: Daniel-Lesur's best-known composition is the a cappella choral work, Le Cantique des cantiques, a setting for 12 voices of parts of the Song of Songs, interspersed with Latin verses and New Testament texts. The seventh and final movement, titled "Épithalame", utilizes "the combination of richly harmonised upper voices singing the famous words from Chapter 8 of the Song of Songs in French ("Pose-moi comme un sceau sur ton coeur, comme un sceau sur ton bras. Car l'amour est fort comme la mort') over an ostinato set to Latin words ("Veni sponsa Christi") [which] has very great cumulative power, reaching a mighty twelve-part climax where all the voices sing a succession of Alleluias which initially emerge from the complex texture in a repeated motif coloured by the Lydian mode – an idea which seems to suggest the joyous pealing of bells." (From his obituary; see external links.) The Cantique des cantiques has been recorded by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, and is frequently performed internationally by such groups as Chanticleer and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

https://www.youtube.com/v/JVU-DPmxseA?list=PLJPoOioIa3p3eikzZOPQr0FErQuoUDAoc

[Turner]

Besides the "Symphonie de Danses", a "Pastorale" & the "Suite Medievale", I also have his symphonic poem "Andrea Del Sarto", once downloaded from e-music. And there´s an old CD with the "Serenade for Strings" conducted by Paul Kuentz, too (Pierre Verany CD).

[snyprrr]

Do I have a giant String Quartet played by the Loewenguth? Or is that the other guy I always get confused with Lesur...?...

[Spineur]

Besides the "Symphonie de Danses", a "Pastorale" & the "Suite Medievale", I also have his symphonic poem "Andrea Del Sarto", once downloaded from e-music. And there´s an old CD with the "Serenade for Strings" conducted by Paul Kuentz, too (Pierre Verany CD).

You are fortunate !! I would love to hear La suite médievale and Andrea del Sarto.   I take you enjoyed these works ?

[Turner]

The symphonic poem is on a Phoenix cd
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WZ9A4U?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

It´s been a long time since I heard it (in the field of collecting, I am a completist, especially as regards the most known 20th century composers), but I remember it as enjoyable, if written in a conservative style.

When once working in a record shop, we had a customer who considered D-Lesur among his favourite composes. It´s a bit surprising, how unrecorded he is.

The Kuentz CD is good and well-played
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000003VHH?keywords=kuentz%20jolivet%20daniel-lesur&qid=1454014405&ref_=sr_1_1&s=dmusic&sr=8-1

[pjme]

Cher Spineur,

Try You Tube. The Suite Médiévale is complete (albeit in two or three parts) and here is Andrea del Sarto - symphonic poem. Composé, d'après la musique de scène pour la pièce de Musset, en 1949, et remanié en 1970
However, there is also an opera named Andrea del Sarto (a much later work from1968) that received the composition prize of the City of Paris in 1969.


https://www.youtube.com/v/mTWsgLAVoMU

There's another performance (with the Luxemburg Orchestra / Louis de Froment) which has better sound. It can be found quite easily and for little money on the Internet.

[Christo]

His availiable discography is unfortunatly limited:
- Le cantique des cantiques
- Symphony of dances for strings piano and timbals

You can hear some excerpts from the centre de musique contenporaine

http://www.musiquecontemporaine.fr/fr/search?disp=all&query=Daniel-Lesur&exp_inl=on&exp_aud=on&so=ta

and there are clips on Utube

Here is a little present from me (59 Mb)

http://www.nitroflare.com/view/00D25F7A8CAFF30/DanielLesurSerenade.zip
The adagio is a killer.  Almost as good as Samuel Barber's

I 'discovered' the 1954 Serenade for strings (à Maurice Ohana) by chance, as the opening piece of this CD (mentioned here before) with five French pieces for string orchestra, all written between 1954 and 1973. I find the Serenade hauntingly beautiful, all three movements (allegretto - adagio - allegro deciso) long, and ordered for the CD with his Symphonie de Danses immediately.

[snyprrr]

Do I have a giant String Quartet played by the Loewenguth? Or is that the other guy I always get confused with Lesur...?...

The Faure SQ No.2 from 1949