Jean Rogister

Jean François Toussaint Rogister (25 October 1879 in Liège – 20 March 1964 in Liège) was a Belgian virtuoso violist,[1] teacher and composer.

Life and career

Jean Rogister came from a family of musicians; his father was a flautist and his brothers Fernand Rogister (1872–1954), a horn player and composer, Chrétien Rogister (pseudonym Caludi) (1884–1941), a violinist and composer, and Hubert Rogister, a cellist.

A musically gifted child, Rogister studied violin, viola, horn and composition at the Liège Conservatory.[2] Rogister studied composition with Jean-Théodore Radoux, and viola with Désiré Heynberg (1831–1898) and Oscar Englebert. He emerged a virtuoso viola player, and at the age of twenty-one, he was appointed Professor of Viola (1900–1945) at the Liège Conservatory.

Rogister performed in chamber ensembles and made his debut in 1902 as violist of the Charlier Quartet led by Léopold Charlier. It was also at this time that Rogister completed his String Quartet No. 1. He continued to study composition and play in chamber music ensembles including Cercle Ad Artem, the Chaumont Quartet, and Piano et Archets.[1] In 1923, he left for the United States where he briefly led the viola section in the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Returning to Liège, Rogister became a founding member of the Quatuor de Liège in 1925 along with violinists Henri Koch (1903–1969) and Joseph Beck, and cellist Lydia Rogister-Schor. The ensemble toured throughout in Europe and the United States to great acclaim.[3]

Rogister, like his composition teacher Radoux, composed largely in the neo-romantic style of César Franck, occasionally introducing his own modernistic Impressionistic sonorities.[2] He composed eight string quartets and other chamber music, symphonic works including Jeux symphoniques (1952), concertante works for viola, violin, cello and trombone, and vocal works including a Requiem (1944).

Selected works

Stage
Orchestral
Concertante
Chamber music
Vocal
Choral

Discography

Lamento for string orchestra (1916)
Allegro energico for string orchestra (1940)
Adagio for double string orchestra (1960)
Suite in G minor for flute and string orchestra, Op. 114 (1949)
Largo dans le style ancien et Scherzo for string orchestra (1932)
Adieu for viola and string orchestra (1919)
Concerto in G minor for violin and orchestra (1944–1945)
Fantasie Concertante for viola and orchestra (1910)
Concerto in A major for viola and orchestra (1914)
Symphony No. 3 in E minor for solo string quartet and orchestra (1942–1943)
Fantaisie burlesque sur un thème populaire for violin and orchestra (1928)

References

  1. 1 2 Vendrix, Philippe (1999). Œuvres pour ensemble à cordes (CD booklet). Liège: Cypres Records.
  2. 1 2 Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth Edition, Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, Schirmer Books, New York, 1993, page 1529.
  3. ↑ Van Noeyen, Annick (1987). Symphonie pour Quatuor à Cordes et Grande Orchestre (CD booklet). Brussels: Musique en Wallonie/Schwann.

External links

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