1877–1943 · Switzerland
Émile-Robert Blanchet (1877–1943) was a Swiss pianist, composer and mountaineer from Lausanne. He studied in Cologne and with Ferruccio Busoni, taught at the Lausanne Conservatoire and directed it for several years. He wrote more than a hundred works, mostly for piano, and from 1917 devoted himself entirely to the mountains.
Émile-Robert Blanchet was born in Lausanne on 17 July 1877. His father, Charles Blanchet, was the organist of the Church of Saint-François in Lausanne and a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles. The boy began his lessons at the age of four, first with his father and later with his mother, who was also a pianist.
From the age of eighteen Blanchet studied at the Cologne Conservatoire with Gustav Jensen and Friedrich Wilhelm Franke; Isidor Seiss is also named among his Cologne teachers. In 1898 he went to Berlin to work with Ferruccio Busoni.
In 1902–1904 Blanchet gave concerts in Berlin, among them appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic. His first compositions date from the same time. After that he returned to Lausanne.
In 1904 Blanchet settled in Lausanne for good and became professor of piano at the Lausanne Conservatoire. From 1905 he was also its director. He gave up that post in 1908 so as to devote himself to teaching, composing, preparing for concerts and, above all, climbing, his second passion.
He went on teaching at the conservatoire until 1917. His pupils are said to have included Germaine Schmidt, Francis Lombriser, Henri Jaton and François Olivier.
In 1909 Blanchet won first prize in the international composition competition of the magazine Signale für die musikalische Welt with his Tema con variazioni, Op. 13. He appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, including those of Paris and Cologne, and with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet, its founder and chief conductor.
In 1917 Blanchet gave up teaching at the Lausanne Conservatoire and began to travel between Lausanne and Paris. He got to know the pianists Leopold Godowsky, Clara Haskil, Franz Josef Hirt, Ernest Schelling, Alfred Cortot and others. In 1929 his Concertstück for piano and orchestra, Op. 14, was chosen as the set piece for the piano competition at the Chicago conservatory.
From 1901 Blanchet made many ascents in the Alps. He made the first ascent of the Rimpfischhorn by its north face and of the Aletschhorn by its south-east face. A number of very difficult and often dangerous routes that he climbed between 1901 and 1942 were later named after him.
Apart from a few solo climbs, Blanchet always climbed with guides, among them Armand Charlet, Oskar Supersaxo and Kaspar Mooser. He climbed all the Swiss four-thousand-metre peaks. His first ascents include L’Isolée (also called Pointe Blanchet, 4,114 metres) and Pointe Médiane (4,097 metres) in the Aiguilles du Diable.
In 1917 Blanchet resigned so as to give himself entirely to mountaineering; he wrote two books about climbing. He did not give up music, though: his book Technique moderne du piano (Modern Piano Technique) appeared in 1935, and in 1940 he wrote the Sonata, Op. 108, dedicated to the Polish virtuoso Józef Turczyński.
The Sonata, Op. 108, remained unpublished; it is regarded as Blanchet’s most characteristic work and his musical testament. The catalogue of his works contains 113 numbers. Blanchet died on 27 March 1943.
Blanchet was a pianist-composer, and almost all of his music is for the piano. His catalogue contains 113 numbers. Apart from the Concertstück for piano and orchestra, Op. 14, two works for violin and piano, a piece for organ and a few songs with piano accompaniment, he wrote only for the piano: technical exercises, virtuoso studies, sonatas, preludes and more.
Works named among his selected pieces include the Tema con variazioni, Op. 13; the Concertstück, Op. 14 (1911), which also exists in a version with a second piano in place of the orchestra; Turquie, Op. 18 No. 3, Au jardin du vieux sérail (1923); Rhapsodie turque (Mouharebè), Op. 51 (1929); and the Nocturne and Tarantelle from the Dix Nouvelles Études (1920).
Blanchet’s piano works demand experienced performers and are considered difficult to play. They are tonal throughout, but with complex harmony, strong chromatic tension and contrapuntal layering. Blanchet regarded the Lausanne pianist Isabelle Hafen as the best interpreter of his music.
The site offers his works for solo piano: Etude de concert, Op. 15 No. 1; Polonaise, Op. 15 No. 3; Scherzo, Op. 15 No. 4; Turquie, Op. 18; Premiere Ballade, Op. 29; Deuxieme Ballade, Op. 30; Troisieme Ballade, Op. 32; Trois Ecossaises, Op. 35 and Preludes, Op. 41. All of these editions are marked with the level “intermediate-plus”.