Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

Imai, Nobuko

(b Tokyo, 18 March 1943). Japanese viola player. She studied at the Tōhō School, Tokyo, with Toshiya Eto and Hideo Saito (1958–65), the Yale Graduate School with David Schwartz and Broadus Erle (1965–6) and the Juilliard School with Walter Trampler (1966–8). She made her US recital début at Carnegie Hall in 1968 and was a member of the Vermeer String Quartet from 1974 to 1979. Her London début was in 1975, in Berlioz's Harold en Italie. In 1980 she took part in the world première of Tippett's Triple Concerto, which she later recorded, and in 1982 performed Walton's Viola Concerto at the Barbican Concert Hall, London, in a live TV broadcast by the BBC to celebrate the composer's 80th birthday. Imai also gave the world première of Takemitsu's concerto A String around Autumn with the Orchestre de Paris in 1989. She has taught at the RNCM (1978–81), the Royal Conservatory, The Hague (1980–85), and the Utrecht Conservatory (1982–5), and in 1985 was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. In 1995–6 she organized Hindemith centenary festivals in Tokyo, London and New York, at which all the composer’s music for viola and much of his chamber music was performed. Imai's playing is elegant and her tone rich and mellow, as can be heard on many recordings, including the concertos of Takemitsu, Walton, Pettersson and Schnittke, Harold en Italie, her own viola transcription of Bach’s six solo cello suites and much chamber music. She plays a viola by Andreas Guarneri, dated 1690. (M. Campbell: ‘Going Solo’, The Strad, xcv (1984–5), 349–50)

MARGARET CAMPBELL

Imbault, Jean-Jérôme

(b Paris, 9 March 1753; d Paris,15 April 1832). French violinist and music publisher. As a boy he studied with Pierre Gaviniès; at the age of 17 he made his début in a concerto in which he showed great promise, according to the Mercure de France of 1 April 1770. A performance 11 years later elicited only mild enthusiasm, and the soloist’s ‘noticeable shyness’ was commented on (Mercure de France, April 1781). His later musical activity was for the most part confined to teaching and to participation in the orchestras of various societies (including the Concert Spirituel, the Concert d’Emulation, the Société Académique des Enfants d’Appollon, the Concert Olympique and, in 1810, the imperial chapel), although in these he sometimes performed as leader, and occasionally as soloist.

The music publishing house that Imbault founded operated during its first year in connection with the already established firm of Jean-Georges Sieber (their first joint announcement, in the Journal de la librairie of 2 August 1783, was for Devienne’s Second Flute Concerto). Advertisements for Imbault alone appeared in various journals, beginning in November 1784 with one for J.B. Cartier’s variations op.3 on airs from Grétry’s Richard Coeur de Lion. Until January 1811 Imbault continued to describe himself on title-pages and advertisements as both ‘professeur et éditeur de musique’.

The firm’s considerable output is well documented by a series of catalogues issued between 1786 and about 1803 and by a 284-page thematic catalogue of publications (1791 or 1792). In addition to the opera arrangements and excerpts common to the period Imbault published many works by Haydn, Clementi, G.B. Viotti, Pleyel, Mozart, Boccherini, Gyrowetz, Paul Wranitzky and other respected composers. In 1798 or 1799 he bought the shop of a publisher named Leblanc and from that time the additional location in the ‘péristyle du Théâtre de l’Opéra comique’ (also called the Théâtre Italien or Théâtre Favart) at 461 rue Favart appeared in his address along with the original one, 125 rue St Honoré. Imbault is still listed in the Almanach du commerce de Paris for 1812, with the designation of music seller to ‘their imperial and royal majesties’. On 14 July 1812 Imbault sold the firm to P.H. Janet and Alexandre Cotelle (Janet had earlier served Imbault as agent). Although the successors occupied part of the house for their commerce, Imbault continued to live at 125 rue St Honoré until his death. His bequest to his wife (there were no children) included four houses and valuable shares in the Bank of France.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DEMF

HopkinsonD

JohanssonFMP[incl. facs. of Imbault catalogues]

La LaurencieEF

Catalogue thématique des ouvrages de musique mis au jour par Imbault (Paris, 1791 or 1792/R)

P. Guiomar: ‘J.J. Imbault’, FAM, xiii (1966), 43–5

C. Pierre: Histoire du Concert spirituel 1725–1790 (Paris, 1975)

R. Benton: ‘J.-J. Imbault (1753–1832), violoniste et éditeur de musique à Paris’, RdM, lxii (1976), 86–103

J. Gribenski: ‘Un métier difficile: éditeur de musique à Paris sous la Révolution’, Le tambour et la harpe [Lyons 1989], ed. J.-R. Julien and J.-R. Mongrédien (Paris, 1991), 21–36, esp. 27–8

RITA BENTON

Imbert, Hugues

(b Moulins-Engilbert, Nièvre, 11 Jan 1842; d Paris, 15 Jan 1905). French music critic and writer. He was educated in Paris and studied music privately. Despite the duties of an official career, he maintained his early friendships with musicians, including Chabrier, d’Indy and Fauré. He began writing on music in 1886 and contributed articles to La musique populaire, La revue illustrée, Grande revue, L’indépendance musicale, L’artiste, La liberté, Revue d’art ancien et moderne, Revue bleue, The Musician and the second edition of Grove’s Dictionary. In 1900 he became chief editor of the Guide musical. He was, with Edouard Schuré, one of the few Parisian advocates of Brahms’s music, and successfully nominated him as a member of the Académie Française.

Imbert’s most important books are the three volumes of Profils (1888–97; Brahms and Tchaikovsky in the first volume and Rubinstein in the third are the only non-French musicians discussed). His writings also include Portraits et études (1894; with articles on Brahms’s German Requiem and Schumann’s Faust), Rembrandt et Richard Wagner (1897), Charles Gounod (1897), Georges Bizet (1899), La symphonie après Beethoven (1900; a reply to Weingartner’s pamphlet), and a final collection of contemporary musical ‘profiles’, Médaillons contemporains (1902). (C. Goubault: La critique musicale dans la presse française de 1870 à 1914, Geneva and Paris, 1984)

WRITINGS

Profils de musiciens, avec une préface par E. Schuré: P. Tschaikowsky, J. Brahms, E. Chabrier, Vincent d’Indy, G. Fauré, C. Saint-Saëns (Paris, 1888)

Symphonie, mélanges de critique littéraire et musicale (Paris, 1891)

Nouveaux profils de musiciens: René de Boisdeffre, Théodore Dubois, Charles Gounod, Augusta Holmès, Edouard Lalo, Ernest Reyer (Paris, 1892)

Etude sur Johannès Brahms, avec le catalogue de ses oeuvres (Paris, 1894)

Portraits et études: César Franck, C.-M. Widor, Edouard Colonne, Jules Garcin, Charles Lamoureux, ‘Faust’ par Robert Schumann, le ‘Requiem’ de Brahms (Paris, 1894)

Charles Gounod: les mémoires d’un artiste et l’autobiographie (Paris, 1897)

Profils d’artistes contemporains: Alexis de Castillon, Paul Lacombe, Charles Lefebvre, Jules Massenet, Antoine Rubinstein, Edouard Schuré (Paris, 1897)

Rembrandt et Richard Wagner: le clair-obscur dans l’art (Paris, 1897)

Georges Bizet (Paris, 1899)

La symphonie après Beethoven, réponse à Félix Weingartner (Paris, 1900)

Médaillons contemporains (Paris, 1902)

ed. E. Schuré: Johannès Brahms: sa vie et son oeuvre (Paris, 1906)

DAVID CHARLTON (text), KAREN HENSON (work-list)