Sonates Pour Pianoforte

Abstract

Hyacinthe Jadin was a minor composer of the late-Classical era in France, known for piano music that foreshadows the coming Romantic era.

His father was Jean B. Jadin a violinist probably from Brussels, where he worked for the Habsburg court there, and then settled at Versailles, where he had family connections. He taught music to his younger son, Hyacinthe Jadin, who later studied piano with N.J. Hüllmandel.

Meanwhile his brother (one year older), Louis Emmanuel Jadin, had been a "musical page" to the king and a member of the boy choir of the royal chapel. These positions did not give him training at piano, so Hyacinthe taught him how to play it. Louis Emmanuel went on to become the more important composer of the two.

In April 1789, perhaps not yet 20, Hyacinthe played one of his own piano concertos at one of the Concerts Spirituels. After the Revolution, both Louis and Hyacinthe had positions as keyboard players at the Théâtre de Monsieur.

He rapidly gained fame as a keyboard virtuoso. In 1794 he performed in the festival performances of the Institute National de Musique. In 1795 the Revolutionary government established the national music conservatory system. Hyacinthe Jadin was chosen the first professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire. In the 1796 - 1797 season his fame among the general public increased. He had only a short time to enjoy the adulation, for he died in September 1800.

He wrote a number of vocal and choral works on revolutionary themes, three piano concertos, 12 string quartets, other chamber music, piano sonatas, and shorter piano works. The piano sonatas, the most remembered of his works, are well-built on Classical formal models, but have an attractive pre-Romantic feeling.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide