Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe (1818 – 1884) was a
French pianist and composer. He was born in Bourges,
the brother of composer Felicita Casella. He showed
unusual musical abilities at very young age and was
soon hailed as a child prodigy. He studied piano at the
Paris Conservatoire from 1829 to 1832 with Pierre
Zimmerman and won first prize in piano performance at
only age 12 in 1831. He began touring Western Europe
after leaving the Conservatoire, and in 1834 he studied
composition in Vienna...(+)
Pierre Louis Trouillon-Lacombe (1818 – 1884) was a
French pianist and composer. He was born in Bourges,
the brother of composer Felicita Casella. He showed
unusual musical abilities at very young age and was
soon hailed as a child prodigy. He studied piano at the
Paris Conservatoire from 1829 to 1832 with Pierre
Zimmerman and won first prize in piano performance at
only age 12 in 1831. He began touring Western Europe
after leaving the Conservatoire, and in 1834 he studied
composition in Vienna with Carl Czerny, and theory with
Ignaz von Seyfried and Simon Sechter. At the end of the
decade, he settled in Paris and married his first wife;
his second wife, Andrea Lacombe (née Favel), whom he
married in 1869, was a singer.
In Paris, Lacombe initially established himself as a
virtuoso pianist, increasingly dedicating himself to
composition and music criticism. (His essays were
partly reprinted in a posthumous collection,
Philosophie et musique (1896).)
Lacombe's first published works include a piano
quintet, a trio, and some piano pieces. He wrote a
number of dramatic symphonies with soloist and choir,
and his cantata, Sapho, was performed at the famous
Paris Exposition Universelle (1878).
He wrote several operas, but only two were performed in
his lifetime. La madone was a completely modern
composition with musical continuity through each act,
elaborate orchestration, and only a small amount of
spoken dialogue. However, the opening night response
was described as lukewarm. Madame Boniface, a two-act
comic piece, was performed in 1883, late in his life.
Perhaps his finest work is Winkelried (1892), a
four-act grand opera that premiered posthumously.
Steven Huebner, writing in Grove, states "musically the
score is worth more recognition than it has received.
It betrays none of the influence of Gounod seen in so
many French operas of the period. Though it is
conservative in form, the orchestration and harmonic
style are rich (...) Stirring homorhythmic choruses
make Winkelried a fine vehicle for Swiss patriotic
sentiment."
Lacombe died in Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, a small town
located on the English Channel, at age 65.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lacombe).
Although originally created for Solo Piano, I created
this Interpretation of the Nocturne in Bb Major from
Quatre Nocturnes (Op. 8 No. 2) for Flute & Piano.