Claude-Béninge Balbastre (1727-1799); FRA   

Claude-Béninge Balbastre (pronounced with a silent "s") was the son of Béninge Balbastre, the organist at Dijon's St Etienne Church. It is likely that his early musical education was from his father. During this time the boy wrote a few small pieces that are of little consequence. Probably of more importance is that the family was friends with Claude Rameau, brother of the influential Paris musician Jean-Philippe Rameau. At the age of 23, Balbastre moved to Paris, where he had composition lessons with the famous Rameau, and organ lessons from Pierre Février. Aside from a brief return to Dijon, he established permanent residence in Paris.

In March 1755, he played one of his own organ concertos at a Concert Spirituel. If the critic of the Mercure de France is accurate, he "surprised and charmed the entire assemblage." With this concert he established a successful career. He frequently appeared at Concerts Spirituels and, in March 1756, got the job of organist of St. Roch. In 1760 he received the position of an organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. (He shared the post equally with Armand-Louis Couperin, Louis-Claude Daquin, and Nicolas Sejan.)

He continued to appear frequently at the Concerts Spirituels, playing his own organ concertos and transcriptions of favorite numbers from operas by Rameau and other leading stage performers of the day. He gained an international reputation, and even attracted people who went to one of his churches specifically to hear him play. He wrote variations on well known noëls and played them each year at the Christmas Midnight Mass. This attracted such a throng each year that ultimately the Archbishop ordered him to stop playing them.

In 1776 he was appointed organist to the King's brother and retained that position when the brother became Louis XVI. He also taught harpsichord to his wife, Marie (Antoinette) and the Duke of Chartres, and was organist of the Royal Chapel.

These positions made him much in demand as the leading keyboard teacher to the nobles and other elite, including foreign emissaries, such as Thomas Jefferson, who engaged him to teach his daughter.

All this ended with the Revolution. Royalty and nobles were dead or fled, and the churches were closed. Very little of his life in this last decade is known, except that he was forced into poverty and that he had to make an arrangement of Les Marseillaise and play it on the organ of Notre-Dame, which had been seized and deconsecrated at the height of anti-clerical fervor in the revolution.

The vicissitudes of time were not kind to Balbastre. None of the organ concertos that so delighted Paris survived. He is represented in history by only one vocal collection, some charming Sonates en quatuor that seem to be an effort to capture the newly popular German style in chamber music in 1779, and a fair assortment of his keyboard music.

These works range in style from a late-Baroque style similar to Rameau's to more modern, Classical pieces. Some of the music shows an influence of Domenico Scarlatti.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

Below are works by C.Balbastre that every music lover should explore: