PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Bret, Gustave (1875-1969)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

Brignoles (Var, Francia) 1875-08-30 - Fréjus (Var, Francia) 1969-04-16

History:

French organist, composer, conductor and music critic.

Born on 30 August 1875 in Brignoles (France), and died on 16 April 1969 in Fréjus (France). Father of architect Henri Bret and painter Paul Bret. He attended law school in Aix-en-Provence from 1892 to 1895 and later decided to study music. He received lessons from Charles-Marie Widor and Vincent d'Indy and studied composition at the Schola Cantorum, where years later he would teach accompaniment and improvisation (1904-1909). From 1898 to 1903 he was the organist of Saint-Sulpice, and in 1900 he began working as a music critic for the newspaper "L'Intransigeant". In 1904 he became the founder and director of the Société Jean-Sébastien Bach, whose inaugural concert featured the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. Bret was also artistic director of the Société Française des Amis de la Musique. He conducted several concerts in Spain during World War I at the express request of King Alfonso XIII. From 1914 to 1939, he was in charge of the concert series dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach and held at the Temple de l'Étoile in Paris.

Gustave combined his conducting and music management activities with a performance career, recording several albums for the Gramophone label. He travelled to Spain on several occasions; in 1914 he attended a tribute to Lluís Millet, and in 1920 he and one of his sons paid a visit to the composer Manuel de Falla in Granada. After the death of his son Henri in 1940, he retired from the music world.

As a composer, he wrote the oratory Les pèlerins d'Emmaüs (1903) and the piano pieces "Fleur d'oranger" (1890) and "Césarine" (1891). He was made an Officer of the French Legion of Honour.