Massenet: Orchestral Suites 1-3 / Herodiade (Ballet Suite)

Jules Massenet was born on 12th May 1842 at Montaud, near Saint-Etienne, and was given the baptismal names of Jules Emile Frederic, although he always hated his first name. He was the youngest child of the family and had eleven brothers and sisters, including the children of his father by his first marriage. The latter, a graduate of the Ecole Poly technique and a staff officer, who had resigned his commission after the defeat of Napoleon, had taken as his second wife Eléonore-Adélaïde Royer de Marancour, daughter of a well- to-do official and known, at least, to the Duchesse d' Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI. Massenet's family, therefore, belonged to the established provincial bourgeoisie, still attached to the grandiose national ideals of Napoleon. In 1848 Massenet's father, owner of an iron-foundry, lost his fortune, a situation aggravated by his ill-health. In consequence he decided to move to Paris with his whole family. In October 1852, Jules Massenet, now only nine years old, entered the Conservatoire, where he studied with Savard and with Laurent, while continuing his normal schooling. In 1859 he won the first piano prize and went on to study harmony with Henri Reber, who advised him to become a composition pupil of Ambroise Thomas.