Duport, Jean-Louis

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Duport, Jean-Louis

Duport, Jean-Louis, famous French cellist, brother of Jean-Pierre Duport; b. Paris, Oct. 4, 1749; d. there, Sept. 7, 1819. He made his public debut at a Concert Spirituel (1768). He joined his brother in Berlin at the outbreak of the Revolution. Returning in 1806, he became musician to Charles IV, the ex-king of Spain, at Marseilles. In 1812 he returned to Paris, where he taught at the Cons. (1813–15). He wrote six cello concertos, sonatas, duos, airs variees, nine nocturnes (for harp and cello), etc. His Essai sur le doigté du violoncelle et la conduite de I’archet, avec une suite d’exercices was for decades a standard textbook, and practically laid the foundations of modern cello virtuosity

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire