Gouvy: The French Mendelssohn

Were it not for the vagaries of history, including the redrawing of the border shortly before he came into the world in a village in Moselle in 1819, Théodore Gouvy would have been born French, instead of Prussian. He was a wealthy artist, who divided his time between Paris, Leipzig and the Gouvy family home in Hombourg-Haut, where he would go to seek inspiration. He received recognition in both countries, becoming a corresponding member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and a member of the Berlin Royal Academy, but he nevertheless suffered the consequences of being a ‘foreigner’ in France, excluded, until his naturalisation in 1851, from the official networks. Although his oeuvre is largely dominated by chamber music, he also produced many orchestral compositions (nine symphonies, for example), religious pieces (a Requiem, a Stabat Mater and a Messe brève) and several dramatic works (including six cantatas and two operas).