A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Dupont, Auguste
DUPONT, Auguste, born at Ensival near Liège, Feb. 9, 1828, was educated at the Liège Conservatoire, and after several years spent in successful travel as a pianist was appointed a professor of the Brussels Conservatoire. His works for the pianoforte are numerous, and show a thorough knowledge of the instrument. They are cast in a popular mould, and may be said to belong to the class of drawing-room music, but they are free from all that is meretricious. A 'Concertstück' (op. 42) and a Concerto in F minor (op. 49) both with orchestral accompaniment, are his most ambitious works. Among his solo pieces the best are 'Roman en dix pages' (op. 48), a set of short pieces showing the influence of Schumann in their structure, and 'Contes du Foyer' (op. 12). A set of songs called 'Poeme d'amour,' contains much that is pleasing and original. His younger brother,
Joseph, born at Ensival, Jan. 3, 1838, educated at Liége and Brussels, has attained great distinction as an operatic conductor. He has held posts of this kind successively at Warsaw, Moscow, and Brussels, where he has been professor of harmony at the Conservatoire, and conductor at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, and at the Association des Artistes Musiciens since 1872. In the following year he succeeded Vieuxtemps as director of the Concerts Populaires. During the final seasons of Mr. Gye's management of Italian Opera, M. Dupont conducted many of the most important performances given at Covent Garden.[ M. ]