Alexis Emmanuel Chabrier
Born: 18th January 1841, Ambert, France
Died: 13th September 1894, Paris, France
Nationality: French
Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. His bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked as a civil servant until the age of thirty-nine while immersing himself in the modernist artistic life of the French capital and composing in his spare time. From 1880 until his final illness he was a full-time composer.
Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, Chabrier left a corpus of operas (including L'étoile), songs, and piano music, but no symphonies, concertos, quartets, sonatas, or religious or liturgical music. His lack of academic training left him free to create his own musical language, unaffected by established rules, and he was regarded by many later composers as an important innovator and a catalyst who paved the way for French modernism.
Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Chabrier
Browse: Chabrier
Further Reading: Chabrier
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French orchestral favourites from John Wilson and Sinfonia of London
1st May 2026
A beautifully chosen and vividly performed collection of popular French pieces including Dukas's L'Apprenti sorcier, Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre, suites from Bizet's Carmen, and Wilson's own orchestral transcription of Debussy's Clair de lune.
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In Spain (and elsewhere) with the RLPO
31st Oct 2025
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic present two contrasting albums - Spain viewed through rose-tinted French glasses, and some rarely-heard masterpieces of pastoral English Romanticism.
Popular Genres: Chabrier
Orchestral
Chamber
Instrumental
Vocal
Concertos
Popular Works: Chabrier
- Air de Ballet (10)
- Aubade (8)
- Ballabile (9)
- Ballade des gros dindons (10)
- Bourrée Fantasque (48)
- Caprice (8)
- Chanson pour Jeanne (15)
- Cinq pieces posthumes (5)
- Cortege burlesque (8)
- Danse Slave (11)
- España (175)
- Fête Polonaise (15)
- Feuillet d'album (17)
- Gwendoline (6)
- Gwendoline Overture (17)
- Habanera (38)
- Idylle (No. 6 from Pièces pittoresques) (7)
- Impromptu (20)
- Joyeuse Marche (69)
- L'Étoile (10)
- L'ile heureuse (27)
- L'Invitation au voyage (7)
- Larghetto for Horn and Orchestra (15)
- Le Roi Malgré Lui (21)
- Les Cigales (13)
- Lied (Catulle Mendès) (7)
- Marche des Cipayes (6)
- Menuet Pompeux (No. 9 from Pièces pittoresques) (7)
- Morceaux (5) (7)
- Pastorale des cochons roses (8)
- Pièces pittoresques (10) (17)
- Prélude Pastoral (6)
- Ronde Champêtre (7)
- Scherzo-valse (No. 10 from Pièces pittoresques) (10)
- Souvenirs de Munich (10)
- Suite de valses (6)
- Suite Pastorale (33)
- Toutes les fleurs (6)
- Trois Valses Romantiques (14)
- Villanelle des petits canards (16)
Recent Best Sellers: Chabrier
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New. Mémoire
Alexandre Tharaud (piano)
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Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2026, Editor's Choice
CD: $17.50Download from $10.00 -
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Special offer. Escales | French Orchestral Works
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
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Gramophone Magazine, February 2020, Recording of the Month
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2020, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2020
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Gramophone Magazine, Critics' Choice 2020
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The Times Records of the Year, 2020
SACD: Original price $20.00 Reduced $16.60Download from $10.00 -
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Special offer. French Orchestral Favourites
Sinfonia of London, John Wilson
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Presto Recording of the Week, 1st May 2026
SACD: Original price $20.00 Reduced $16.60Download from $10.00 -
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Neeme Järvi conducts Emmanuel Chabrier
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Neeme Järvi
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BBC Music Magazine, September 2013, Orchestral Choice
SACD: $20.00Download from $10.00 -
