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| Jean-Claude Malgoire | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jean-Claude Malgoire |
| Birth date | 25 November 1940 |
| Birth place | Avignon, Vaucluse, France |
| Death date | 14 April 2018 |
| Death place | Paris, France |
| Occupation | Conductor, oboist, artistic director |
| Years active | 1960s–2018 |
Jean-Claude Malgoire was a French conductor and oboist renowned for pioneering historically informed performance of Baroque and Classical music and for founding influential ensembles. He built a career spanning opera, orchestral repertoire, and early music revival, leading performances across Europe and recording extensively. Malgoire fostered collaborations with leading soloists, directors, and institutions while influencing generations of period-instrument performers.
Born in Avignon, Vaucluse, Malgoire grew up amid cultural institutions of Provence such as the Avignon Festival and the Opéra d'Avignon, and studied at conservatoires linked to the Conservatoire de Paris tradition. His formative teachers and influences included figures associated with French Baroque revival and wind performance connected to institutions like the Haute École de Musique model and conservatoires in Marseille and Lyon. Early encounters with performers from ensembles tied to Philippe Herreweghe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and members of the Orchestre de Paris shaped his approach to repertoire and historical technique. He received mentorship reflecting French conservatory lineages that intersected with performers from the French Republican Guard Band and networks associated with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.
Malgoire began as an oboist performing repertoire from Baroque to contemporary composers, appearing alongside artists from the Orchestre National de France, Ensemble InterContemporain, and chamber groups associated with the Opéra National de Paris. Transitioning to conducting, he embraced repertoire spanning Jean-Baptiste Lully, Georg Friedrich Händel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, while also programming works by Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, and Claude Debussy. He conducted in venues including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Pleyel, La Scala, and at festivals such as the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Salzburg Festival. His career intersected with directors and stage figures from the Comédie-Française and opera houses in Berlin, Vienna, London, Rome, and Madrid.
Malgoire founded and directed ensembles including the period-instrument group La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, building links to earlier collectives such as Les Arts Florissants, Les Talens Lyriques, Il Giardino Armonico, The English Concert, and Academy of Ancient Music. He collaborated with soloists and conductors like William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Jordi Savall, Christoph Eschenbach, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustavo Dudamel, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. His ensembles worked with singers and actors associated with René Jacobs, Dorothea Röschmann, Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballé, and directors from the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House. He also engaged with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Monteverdi Choir, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and with contemporary music groups like Ensemble Modern.
His discography encompassed French Baroque masterpieces by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, and Jean-Baptiste Lully, alongside works by Georg Philipp Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi, and Arcangelo Corelli. He recorded operatic and sacred works by Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Gioachino Rossini, as well as lesser-known repertoire by François Couperin and Jean-François Dandrieu. Malgoire's recordings for labels engaging early music and historical performance practice connected him to catalogues similar to Erato Records, Harmonia Mundi, Virgin Classics, and Naïve Records. He produced acclaimed performances of oratorios, cantatas, and instrumental concertos that entered discographies alongside projects by Christopher Hogwood and Trevor Pinnock.
Throughout his career Malgoire received honors from French cultural bodies and arts institutions including distinctions comparable to those awarded by the Ministry of Culture (France), nominations and prizes shared with artists at the Victoires de la Musique Classique, and recognition from organizations such as the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Festivals and academies including the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Festival d'Avignon, and the Edinburgh Festival acknowledged his contribution to historic performance. His recordings were cited in listings and award rounds by Diapason d'Or, Gramophone Awards, and organizations that grant the MIDEM Classical Award.
Malgoire taught and mentored young musicians through masterclasses and residencies at conservatories and academies including institutions analogous to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and summer schools linked to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Aix-en-Provence Academy, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He advised performers who went on to work with ensembles such as Les Musiciens du Louvre and served on juries for competitions connected to the ARD International Music Competition and the Concours International de Genève. His pedagogical influence extended to historically informed technique for winds and continuo players active in European early music networks.
Malgoire's career left an imprint on the revival of Baroque opera and period-informed orchestral practice in France and internationally, influencing ensembles and institutions across Europe and shaping programming at opera houses like the Opéra-Comique and conservatoires in Paris and Lyon. His legacy endures through students and recordings preserved in catalogs alongside major early music practitioners, and through continued performances by ensembles he inspired such as Les Arts Florissants and Le Concert Spirituel. He died in Paris in 2018, remembered in obituaries published by cultural outlets and chronicled in retrospectives by festivals and music academies.
Category:French conductors (music) Category:Baroque music