Servais, (Adrien-) François

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Servais, (Adrien-) François

Servais, (Adrien-) François, famous Belgian cellist, teacher, and composer, father of Joseph Servais ; b. Hal, near Brussels, June 6, 1807; d. there, Nov. 26, 1866. He studied at the Brussels Cons. He played in a Brussels theater orch., then went to Paris, where he gave a concert in 1834 with brilliant success. On May 25, 1835, he played his own Cello Concerto at a Phil. Soc. concert in London; subsequently made a grand tour of Europe, and spent several years in Russia as a concert player, even reaching Siberia. He was appointed prof. at the Brussels Cons. in 1848, and taught many pupils who became distinguished artists. His adopted son was François (Franz Matheiu) Servais . He wrote 2 cello concertos, 16 fantasias for Cello and Orch., 6 études and 14 duos for Cello and Piano (with Gregoir), 6 caprices for Cello and Cello ad libitum, 3 duos for Violin and Cello (with Léonard), and a duo for Violin and Cello (with Vieuxtemps).

Bibliography

A Peeters, A.-F. S. (1807–1866): Biografie, werk en bijdrage tot de ontwikkeling van de 19de-eeuwse colletechniek (Leu-ven, 1988).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire