The harpsichordist Huguette Dreyfus has died

Gramophone
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Born November 30, 1928; died May 17, 2016

One of the leading figures in the revival of the harpsichord in France, and a major player in the post-war historically-informed performance practice movement, Huguette Dreyfus has died aged 87. She studied the piano in Paris, with both Lazare Lévy and Norbert Dufourcq at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. She later worked with Ruggero Gerlin, a Landowska pupil, at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, later winning first medal at the International Harpsichord Competition in Geneva in 1958.

During the 1960s she focused on keyboard repertoire from the Renaissance to the Baroque, working with many different figures in the burgeoining early-music movement – players like Eduard Melkus, Luciano Sgrizzi, Paul Kuentz and Lionel Rogg, as well as 'non-specalists' like  Jean-Pierre Rampal and Henryk Szeryng.

From 1967 she taught at the Schola Cantorum and Sorbonne in Paris, and at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Lyon. Her pupils included Christophe Rousset, Jory Vinikour, Olivier Beaumont, Yannick Le Gaillard and Noëlle Spieth. 

Dreyfus recorded extensively, including for Archiv Produktion, Erato and Denon, and a number of her Bach recordings for Denon were reissued recently by Heritage Recordings. 

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