If his heading is any guide, Bert Bailey doesn't seem to realise that
Marcel Landowski died almost four years ago.  In case it's of any interest,
here's my obituary of the time, published in The Independent.

   Anyone acquainted with French cultural life will know that it
   revolves around a few central characters, each satrap fiercely
   defending his territory against those who do not share the faith.
   The dominant figure in French music for the past several decades
   has been Pierre Boulez, and composers who follow Boulez's hardline
   modernism are usually brought in and looked after.  Intermittently,
   there is a grand debat which eddies through the French press
   when an outsider, a composer who rejects serialist dogma, complains
   that the bulk of the subsidy goes to the Bouleziens; then the
   dust settles and the status quo is re-established.

   Boulez, thanks to his early notoriety as a composer and his
   excellence as a conductor as much as to his domestic dominance,
   is more or less the only man most non-specialists will think of
   when they consider modern French music.  But there was, until a
   week ago, someone else working to improve the lot of music in
   France, someone whose enthusiasms were much more catholic than
   the narrow passions of Boulez: Marcel Landowski.  It was Landowski
   who first suggested the establishment of the regional orchestras
   which have done so much to improve musical life outside Paris,
   Landowski who founded the Orchestre de Paris, Landowski who
   reinvigorated the teaching of music in French schools by requiring
   all students to take classes in music.

   Marcel Landowski was born in Brittany, the son of the sculptor
   Paul Landowski, and showed enough precocious musical talent to
   merit piano lessons with Marguerite Long, one of France's most
   eminent pianist-teachers.  He then became a pupil at the Paris
   Conservatoire, studying composition with Henri Busser and ecriture
   with Noel Gallon; he also took lessons from the composer-conductor
   Philippe Gaubert and conductor Charles Munch.

   Landowski began to make an impact as a composer shortly before
   the Second World War when, in Paris in 1937, he conducted the
   premieres of his Les Sept Loups and Les Sorcieres, both for
   female chorus and orchestra (the second on texts from Macbeth),
   works which were taken up by Pierre Monteux while the composer
   was still a student.  The young Landowski was also associated
   with Les Six, particularly Milhaud and Honegger, the more rigorous
   members of a group generally remembered for its insouciance.

   For the first part of his career Landowski dedicated himself
   mainly to composition, laying the foundations of what turned out
   to be a very large ouvre - and one in which the human voice
   played a central role.  He continued writing through the German
   occupation: an oratorio, Rythmes du Monde, in 1939-41; Brumes,
   a symphonic poem, in 1943, La Quete sans fin, another oratorio,
   in 1943-44.

   His first opera, and one of his most important works, Le Rire
   de Nils Halerius, occupied him between 1944 and 1948 (it was
   premiered in 1951), and was followed by several more stage works:
   Le Fou, a "drame lyrique" in 1948-55, Rabelais, Francois de
   France, a one-act "opera-ballet", in 1953, Le Ventriloque, a
   "comedie lyrique et dramatique" in 1954-55, and several others
   - L'Opera en Poussiere (1958-62), Les Adieux (1959), Le Pont de
   l'Esperance (1980), La Prison (1981), La Sorciere du placard aux
   balais (a mini-opera for children, 1983, translated by Jeremy
   Drake as The Witch of the Broom Cupboard), Montsegur (1985), La
   Vieille Maison (1987) and, finally, another children's opera,
   P'tit Pierre et la Sorciere du placard aux balais (1991).

   Landowski's first purely orchestral work - Edina, a symphonic
   poems - appeared in 1946 and was swiftly followed by many more:
   suites, further symphonic poems and other pieces, and a series
   of five symphonies, the first, entitled Jean de la Peur, composed
   in 1949, the most recent, Les Lumieres de la Nuit, completed
   only in 1998 and premiered in November that year.

   The concerto was another favoured form, and Landowski produced
   more than most other twentieth-century composers, not least
   because he was writing for musicians who were friends: two for
   piano (1942 and 1963), both premiered by Jacqueline Potier, whom
   he married, a cello concerto (1944-45), another for ondes martenot
   (1954), a bassoon concerto (1957, orchestrated only in 1990),
   two flute concertos (1968 and 1998), a concerto for trumpet,
   orchestra and tape (1976) which goes by the name of Au bout du
   chagrin, une fenetre ouverte, another, Un enfant appelle, for
   soprano, cello and orchestra (1978) composed for Vishnevskaya
   and Rostropovich, an Improvisation for trombone and orchestra
   (1983), Souvenirs d'un jardin d'enfance for oboe and strings
   (1990), a concertino for trombone and strings (1990), a Symphonie
   concertante for organ and orchestra (1993), Que ma joie demeure
   for violin and strings (1994), dedicated to Menuhin, and, lastly,
   Un Chant for cello and orchestra.

   This selective string of works - which omits chamber, instrumental
   and choral music, his ballets and his incidental music for stage
   and screen - would be impressive enough if that were all Landowski
   had been doing.  But when you consider just how much time he was
   spending away from his writing desk, it becomes truly remarkable.

   His public career began in 1961 when he was appointed Director
   of Music at the Comedie-Francaise, a post he held until 1965,
   the last year concurrently with the position of Inspecteur General
   de l'Enseignement Musical in the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
   From 1970 to 1975, in the same ministry, he was Directeur de la
   Musique, de l'Art Lyrique et de la Danse; and in 1977 he became
   Directeur des Affaires Culturelles of the City of Paris.

   The honours now began to flood in as well: he was awarded the
   Prix Maurice Ravel in 1973, elected to the Institut de France
   in 1975 (becoming Perpetual Secretary in 1986 and Chancellor in
   1994), made a Commander of the Legion d'honneur in 1987, and in
   1994 he became a Grand-Officier de l'Ordre du Merite.

   Although his good works are now part of the cultural landscape
   in France, it is through his music that Landowski will be
   remembered further afield, if ever it gets the opportunity to
   travel.  The style is very much in the French tradition: one can
   easily hear it as an extension from the soundworld of Poulenc
   and Honegger, with liberated colours in a basically tonal
   framework.  Landowski, indeed, rejected the avant garde with
   some vigour, complaining that "unfortunately, experimentation
   has become for some the goal of art"; no prizes for guessing
   whom he had in mind.  For Landowski the two big themes of music
   were mysticism and love.

   MARTIN ANDERSON

   Marcel Landowski, composer, conductor, administrator, politician, born Pret
   l'Abbe (Finistere), France, 18 February 1915; married Jacqueline Potier, 2
   sons, 1 daughter, died Paris, 23 December 1999.

The music, as Bert suggests, isn't bad at all and deserves to be better
known.  Cheers

Martin Anderson
Toccata Press
www.toccatapress.com