Necrologie

[Na Samuels dood op 11 september 1898, wijdde het Engelse muziektijdschrift The Musical Times in het oktobernummer een necrologie aan de componist van Christus.]

Belgian musical art has sustained a sensible loss in the death, on the 11th ult., at Ghent, of Adolphe Samuel, for many years director of the Conservatoire in that town. Born at Liège in 1823, he was a pupil at the Liège Conservatoire and also studied in Leizpig under Mendelssohn. He reided at Brussels for a number of years, occupied with teaching and musical criticism, until he was appointed, in 1871, to the directorship of the Ghent Institution, a post which he occupied with much distinction until his death. Amongst his earlier compositions are several operas, symphonies, and chamber works, and he also wrote a cantata performed in connection with the inauguration of the monument erected to Leopold I. at Laeken, in 1880.

His most important and valuable works, however, were produced towards the close of his career, chief amongst them being the oratorio or ‘sacred symphonic poem’ Christus, which met with high appreciation on its repeated performance both in the composer’s native country and in German and Austrian concert-rooms, a Psaume de David, and a Mass which, by his expressed desire, was performed at the funeral obsequies of the deceased artist.

N.N.: Obituary: Adolphe Samuel, in: The Musical Times, jrg. 39, nr. 668, 1 oktober 1898, p. 682.