Philippe Gaubert

Philippe Gaubert
(b Cahors, Lot, 5 July 1879; d Paris, 8 July 1941). French flautist, conductor and composer.

The most celebrated student of Paul Taffanel, he won a premier prix for flute at the Paris Conservatoire in 1894. He also studied composition and won second prize in the Prix de Rome in 1905. He joined the orchestras of the Paris Opéra and Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1897 and was renowned as a soloist. Encouraged by Taffanel he also pursued a parallel career as a conductor from 1904 when he became assistant at the Société des Concerts. In 1919, after active service in World War I, he was appointed principal conductor of the Société des Concerts and professor of flute at the Conservatoire. The following year he also became principal conductor at the Opéra, and in 1931 artistic director. Gaubert was a prolific composer, not only of flute music, but also of operas, ballets, orchestral works and songs. In style his music is somewhere between Fauré and Dukas – colourful in harmonic language, with elegant melodic lines and brilliant, rhapsodic passagework. The supple and expressive artistry of his playing can be heard on a series of recordings for the French Gramophone Company in 1919. He collaborated with Taffanel on a Méthode complète for flute (Paris, 1923).