Newspapers expressed themselves as follows: Albert Dupuis is above all a symphonist of powerful inspiration and exceptional clarity. He handles as an expert musician the choral and orchestral masses and, through combinations of ingenious timbres, succeeds in producing impressions of striking realism.
La Tribune de Saint-Gervais expressed itself in these terms: These motets of diverse tendencies are no less interesting. In Ave Maria, very closely related to that of J. Jumel, Mr. Alquier, and especially Mr. Dupuis push harmonic boldness to the extreme without ever abandoning primitive form. The response by Mr. Dupuis, Plange quasi virgo, reveals a remarkably gifted musician whose dramatic feeling is highly evident. His motet is the expression carried to a high degree; the form is always firm, but how transformed in its harmonic and melodic language! The only criticism that could be made of this harmonic language is that it is more instrumental than vocal. It is enchanting for a choir of choristers, and the singers of Saint-Gervais were rightly congratulated for the fine performance they gave of this difficult motet.
La Libre Critique of Brussels, appreciating his composition, expressed itself in these terms: The work contains everything that constitutes a true work of art. Essentially modern, it is solidly constructed, and its harmonies are vigorous, passionate, justly colored, very unified, and never fail to produce profound sensations.
La Tribune de Saint-Gervais, organ of the Schola Cantorum, wrote: “His cantata Cloches nuptiales is one of the most interesting works emerging from the mold of compositions of this kind. A student of composition of Mr. Vincent d’Indy, the strong mark of the master is felt at every moment, to the point that, under the veil of anonymity, the members of the Brussels jury, on examining the orchestral score, exclaimed: ‘This one belongs to the French school; he is a pupil of Vincent d’Indy.’ Certainly, Mr. Dupuis is a musician; his melodic abundance, his fine mastery, his dramatic temperament call him to the highest musical destinies if he knows how to moderate his ardor and acquire that critical sense, that taste which is the mark of great and true artists.”
Here are some excerpts from the press: “Melody, passion, poetic and dramatic feeling shine there with rare intensity.” (Le Soir) “One of the finest cantatas we have heard for a long time and one of the musicians who impressed us most.” (L’Étoile Belge) “He has treated the poem of Verhulst as a man of the theatre and a poet.” “I believe that one may seriously hope in the future of Albert Dupuis.” (Le Messager de Bruxelles)
New York Herald Tribune: “Thus, abandoning the usual repertoire of violin concerts, Mischa Elman performed the Fantaisie Rhapsodique by Albert Dupuis, a Belgian composer. Mr. Elman’s choice was most fortunate. This work, which recalls those of César Franck and Chausson, is melodic, charms the ear, and gives the violinist the opportunity to display his beautiful tone and his virtuoso talent.”
XXe Siècle: “Jean Michel appears above all as the sincere work of a generous temperament, which broadens and expands its subject instead of exhausting it in order to reach it; the ease of the phrasing, the sense of proportions, the savory quality of the sonority and orchestral coloring all contribute to producing this impression of sincerity and ease in the young composer, a signification otherwise more important than the most learned researches of conception. The beginning of Albert Dupuis’s career is thus revealed precise, with the qualities that he will acquire: the dramatic eloquence, the instinct for situations, and that which already contains in germ what work and experience will bring to fruition.”
La Chronique: “We have been told of the genesis of this work (Jean Michel) and the first stages of the author’s career, a young man of twenty-six years, who combines a remarkable musical temperament with an apprenticeship that has been carried out in the best school. The work reveals not only a superior technique and a profound musical sense, but also an extraordinary melodic faculty.”
Guide Musical: about Jean Michel “This inspiration, at once lively, develops with ease, a breath, a continuity that never gives the impression of effort, and the melodic phrase follows all the inflections required by the poetic thought translated musically; it stops only when, logically, it must end. Mr. Dupuis has taken advantage with extreme skill of all the resources of the modern orchestra, showing himself the worthy pupil of his master Vincent d’Indy, and his instrumentation offers colors that are constantly varied, always chosen with appropriateness.” Mr. Albert Dupuis revealed at the outset a man of the theatre particularly well endowed, and his name will not fail, let us wager, to carry far the renown of the Belgian musical school.
La Gazette: about Cantata La Chanson d’Halewyn “And that sings, that sings, that sings, it unfolds, it finds the exact expression of sentiments and of the setting. The craft is remarkable as well: but it is not craft for craft’s sake; it is what it should be: a means, not an end; it is at the service of an emotion that is expressed freely, frankly.”
XXe Siècle: about Cantata La Chanson d’Halewyn “The cantata of today will remain among the best: it overflows with musicality, it is written with ease, generosity, and frank sincerity, which allow one to hope much for the future of the young artist. Dupuis’s work blossoms in a spontaneity of melodic invention and orchestral richness revealing a true temperament of the theatre.”
La Meuse: about Cantata La Chanson d’Halewyn “There is only one voice to praise the merits of the work, which gives off a freshness of inspiration and a simplicity of means that are rarely encountered in imposed compositions. The author has allowed himself to follow freely his temperament, full of youth and sincerity, breaking somewhat with tradition and the methods of the past. It is no longer a cantata, it is a true symphonic poem.”
L’Étoile Belge: about Cantata La Chanson d’Halewyn “Albert Dupuis has already passed the stage of mastery. One knows that, taking the bull by the horns, the young composer from Verviers has approached Montaigne with his Jean Michel. One will remember this. It is the general conviction, and those who heard today will have been struck by the charm of his warm phrase, the ease and richness of his orchestral combinations, the weight and mastery of his work.”
The Paris journal Comoedia wrote about his First Symphony: “The composer’s work, remarkable for the richness of its coloring, the ingenuity of its symphonic conceptions, and the science of its technique, has met with a warm and deserved success.”
Mr. Dupuis, as a newspaper of the time put it about Martille, is the only one who has been able to rediscover himself; through this dark work he expends an unusual surge, an extraordinary orchestral color, and shows us quite how brilliant his temperament is. There is material for several scores. But this is a matter of age, for it is when he is calmer, allowing the love theme to develop more abundantly, that he will speak best to us. He then reaches a poetic elevation of a pure inspiration that may be called mastery.
Carl Smulders, the distinguished professor at the Conservatory of Liège who devoted a long study to it, wrote among other things: “As for the music, it overflows with sincere emotion and brings, almost at every measure, some fresh harmonic discovery. Poetry and music blend and penetrate each other with such happiness that one no longer knows whether it is the one or the other that brings the mysterious light bathing the score. With Fidelaine, Albert Dupuis places himself in the front rank of avant-garde composers.”
La Meuse wrote about Fidelaine: “Each measure would interest the elite and address itself more to masters of musical science than to the general public. It is very didactic, very learned; it must be said frankly, it is superbly constructed, but it is certainly difficult to grasp at a first hearing.”
L’Express: “Fidelaine is a work of measure and balance, very personal in its means and in its results.”
L’Officiel des théâtres (Lille): “Dupuis’s score is certainly one of the most beautiful that have been staged in Lille for fifteen years. It shows in the author above all an inspiration elevated and also a remarkable theatrical sense. And yet Dupuis, I believe, has very rarely frequented the theatre; his work, which is already moving, is largely a symphonic work. He has thus proved with Le Château de la Bretèche extraordinary qualities of adaptation and logic.”
Le Journal de Liège: “The qualities of Mr. Albert Dupuis, which we have noted in Jean Michel and Fidelaine, we find again in Le Château de la Bretèche: a rare science of instrumentation and a profound knowledge of all the resources of the orchestra; and we must add another, very recent, essential quality which gives this work its success: melody flows freely; the orchestra is at once tender and singing; the softness and depth of the musical phrase, throughout the work, give a rare dramatic intensity.”
Le Progrès du Nord about Le Château de la Bretèche: “I could go on. When a poem or a score comes from the heart and goes to the heart, one can speak of it without end, as the feelings it awakens in us are inexhaustible. The impressions I have noted would suffice perhaps to justify my conclusion: inspired by a drama both poignant and true, poetic and musical, the score of Albert Dupuis, by its personal accent, its generous emotion, its noble lyricism, the power of its breath, its melodic homogeneity, the delicacy of its nuances, the purity of its style, is a human and beautiful work, and will remain so. The young master will have other inspirations; I do not know if they will lead him to more fortunate outcomes. What other contemporary, among us, will find again this native accent? The nuance here has not cooled the ardor.”
Le Gaulois (Paris): “We attended yesterday at the Opera, a great and beautiful artistic evening with the premiere of Le Château de la Bretèche, poem by Messrs. P. Milliet and J. Dor, music by A. Dupuis, a young Belgian composer. Success was evident from the second act and grew until the fall of the curtain. The names of the authors were announced amid applause from all parts of the hall, and one could note all the distinguished personalities, both elegant and worldly, of the Côte d’Azur.”
Le Méphisto (Antwerp) about Le Château de la Bretèche: “Let us say at once that it was a triumph. The modern artist says that it is in this score that the most real beauties are found and that success has taken on the proportions of a triumph. We are happy and proud of this great success achieved by one of our own, a Walloon with a valiant heart. We congratulate Mr. Albert Dupuis with all our heart.”
L’Éclaireur de Nice about La Passion: “Mr. Albert Dupuis is a serious musician, admirably knowledgeable in his craft, writing music in an impeccable manner, and lofty and severe inspiration is applied to serious subjects. His orchestration is marvelous; it has a magnificent power, upon which the melodic line stands out, always appearing through the transformation of the themes.”
Le Monde Illustré: “Mr. Albert Dupuis, who is a musician of noble lineage, has already given many lyrical works to the theatre, but La Passion is without dispute his principal work, where inspiration, supported by solid technique, places this author among the masters and authorizes one to say that he is a pure and noble artist and a marvelous theatre musician.”
Le Figaro (Paris): “Such is the poetic data on which A. Dupuis has written a score that definitely ranks him among the masters of contemporary musical drama. His score is vibrant, colorful, manifestly learned; it is of a charm exquisitely sensitive in the expression of love, of a new violence in the unleashing of hatred and storm, of unlimited prestige, of admirable grandeur in its ascensional resolution… Mr. Dupuis is a musician in every sense of the word and his new work is a masterwork. La Passion has been acclaimed by a strongly impressed audience, and its success was the success of a great emotion perfectly suited to the subject.”
Le Petit Niçois about La Passion: “The music of Mr. A. Dupuis is of the highest beauty, of the most grandiose character and of a rare dramatic intensity; a noble and pure musician is revealed to us, but also a man of the theatre of the greatest power, whose inspiration often reaches the sublime.”
Le Gaulois (Paris) about La Passion: “The sublime grandeur of the subject and its poetic quality were of a nature to inspire a musician. Mr. A. Dupuis has revealed himself there as an indisputable master… The audience, at certain moments, was breathless; rarely has a musical work reached such a degree of emotion.”
Neptune (Antwerp) about La Passion: “On this libretto, Albert Dupuis has written a score that can be ranked among the best musical productions of Belgium. What is most beautiful in the work of the master Dupuis is that it stands at a technical level equal to itself, and that nothing of the inspiration that flows from its source is lost… There are in this score pages of great style, of admirable melodic line, and, what is better, entirely personal… In this work, which does the greatest honor to national musical art, one admires without reserve the orchestration. Mr. Dupuis has cared for the smallest details and has revealed himself a contrapuntist of great value.”
La Gazette (Brussels) about La Passion: “The score is truly majestic. Expressive to the highest degree, poignant at certain moments, the music of Mr. Dupuis admirably depicts the most dramatic episodes of the Calvary of Christ.”
From Paul Gilson, in Le Soir (February 10, 1914): “This is a beautiful work, at once simple and strong, refined yet without unnecessary complications or obscurities. The orchestration, of surprising richness, has the rare merit of never covering the voice. The vocal part is treated masterfully and constantly stands out in full value. In short, La Chanson d’Halewyn is a fine work, of intense poetic feeling and generous musicality.”
From the critic of Le Matin (Antwerp) about La Chanson d’Halewyn: “The score is of a beautiful style. While making full use of the great resources of modern musical art, Albert Dupuis has not forgotten form—widely extended, necessarily—in which he distinguishes himself to his advantage from certain ultra-modernists, true musical anarchists.”
Paul Gilson in the Journal de Bruxelles about La Passion: “It was once again a success, perhaps even on the scale of a triumph. Each scene was warmly applauded, the curtain had to be raised several times, and the final tableau received its loudest applause, at the end of the action, with the most enthusiastic recalls. The staging by Mr. Dalman, particularly well conceived, was inspired by famous paintings: the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci was recreated with striking fidelity. The audience savored with delight the music of Mr. Dupuis, beautiful in its harmonies and melodic, emanating from an orchestration expressive and constantly without heaviness. The tableau of the Last Supper, which I spoke of above, seemed to me particularly successful in its poignant simplicity.”
Lucien Solvay, in L’Éventail about La Passion: “To base his realistic elements on a divine expression, to release all the poetry, it was necessary, I repeat, a tact, a care, an intelligence that few artists possess, and which are the privilege of the Monnaie. Mr. Albert Dupuis possesses the most precious gift for a musician: the sense of movement and of life. Mr. Albert Dupuis is an excellent melodist. The melody flows in his music like a clear, limpid torrent over a rocky ground. It is not of those which, in certain modernists, are concealed under treasures of harmonic combinations and, to be discovered, require active research.”
La Gazette de Bruxelles about La Passion: “The score of Mr. Albert Dupuis colors this living Way of the Cross in the most dramatic manner, with all the resources of a temperament inspired by the most sympathetic musician we know, and gives proof in each of its works. His music is clear, melodic, very scenic, adapted to situations. Not the slightest trace of atonality or polytonality. He does not even fear to sacrifice originality to the simplicity of forms and the correctness of expression. This is precious in these times!
From La Métropole about Hassan: “All the music of Mr. Dupuis is fundamentally alive and sparkling, flowing in melodic waves within an orchestral accompaniment that skillfully dilutes the themes of the background characters—those of Hassan, of Zelica, of the Fakir, and of the Captain. But the action is so well constructed, so lively, so captivating, that it almost absorbs all attention and leaves little time, at a first hearing, to dwell on the score.”
L’Écho du Soir: “Hassan is a well-written work, subtly orchestrated, and carried by the richness and variety of its inspiration. Certainly, it has nothing solemn or grave. Must one still demand this genre in the theatre? But it has, to seduce us, to hold us, to interest us throughout an evening, the same resources as the librettist. It is a piece of great art entertainment, if that formula can please you. The libretto contains exquisite passages, and not for a moment does the language or the action cease to interest the musical commentary. The overall quality of this work, at a time when lyrical theatre could no longer afford to be dull, is that it interests and amuses from beginning to end, and everything seems like a happy caprice of two excellent virtuosos. The public gave it the warmest and most enthusiastic reception, and the numerous curtain calls testified to its appreciation. This creation thus marks a true triumph for Belgian lyrical art.”
Le Matin (Antwerp) about Hassan: “The orchestration is of delicate, elegant, and refined work; the timbres are distributed with taste and justice, and there is a constant concern for clarity of sound. Beneath this series of luminous and pleasing ‘sketches,’ the musician places some subtle notations that denote, at every moment, his concern for theatrical perspective, for the law of contrasts, and for the animation that governs the stage. Thus, the success was significant. There were four curtain calls after the first two acts, three after the third, and a half-dozen recalls after the ballet act, with the traditional and somewhat provincial ceremony of bringing the author on stage with the performers.”
L’Indépendance Belge about La Victoire: “Mr. Dupuis is undoubtedly a skilled musician, who has mastered the resources of his art and knows how to make use of them. His polyphony is easy, his orchestra varied without excess, and he writes excellently for voices. His principal qualities appear to us to be dramatic sense and expressive nobility. He is unquestionably a man of the theatre—the long list of his lyrical works proves it—and we have perhaps not emphasized enough this quality. It appears particularly in the animated scenes, involving rapid expressive fluctuations. We do not know many Belgian musicians capable of doing as much.”
L’Éventail about La Victoire: “Experience and instinct for the stage, melodic abundance, technical skill, surety, and precision of dramatic accent are the principal merits of this remarkable and very pleasing score. A characteristic theme, recurring, of obsessive accent, gives it, through constant reminders, an indispensable unity, in an instrumentation that is clear, varied, and almost always expressive, full of flavor, and free from any vain search for originality. To depict the passion that inflames both heroes, the composer has found phrases that are in turn ardent and charming, set into work with the skill of a consummate musician for whom theatrical procedures hold no secrets.”
Le Journal de Liège about La Victoire: “The musician unfolds, in a constantly renewed flow, treasures of expression, where the happy inspiration of the themes, the skill of the most subtle harmonic modulations, enhanced by touches of gold in a marvelous orchestral dressing, constitutes a substantial, flavorful, and yet clear music, which the ear follows without effort.”
Here is what the press said the day after its performance at the Royal Conservatory of Liège, in December 1927:
La Meuse: “Let us speak of Albert Dupuis’s Symphony No.2 in E minor. The program tells us that it is constructed in the ordinary form of the genre and that the different parts composing it are written in sonata form. It is already much that a work should essentially be symphonic at a time when fantasy—and one hears so many things in the nature of fantasy—is creeping in everywhere, and, shall I say, imposing itself in the genre to the point of overshadowing all character. But it is also much, from this point of view, that the hearing reveals the beauty, the power of this work, this irresistible surge, this generosity, this sincerity with which the feelings are expressed. This cheerfulness, in all its parts, this warm and vibrant sonority, in which the brass move… Oh! I know that the brass are sometimes a little heavy and sometimes overdo it. But this know-how, this symphony reveals it! A son of d’Indy, you would say? Why not? To be the son of d’Indy, is it not to be the grandson of Franck. And the latter was indeed one of ours, who knew how to express and develop his thought symphonically and tonally. We are dealing here with a characteristic of Walloon music. This characteristic appears intensely in the music of Albert Dupuis. This trait, combined with the emotion that emerges from melodic and harmonic elements, creates masterpieces. The Andante of the Symphony in G by Albert Dupuis would be a fine example. (L. L.)
The journal L’Express, of Liège: “The Symphony No.2 of Albert Dupuis, which has just been made known to us, is worthy in every respect of the great care and conviction of the talent that earned Mr. Rasse his recognition. One has written little of works in Belgium, since César Franck, that could be considered of this level. Solidly constructed, coherent in all its elements, superbly composed, this Symphony possesses, in addition to its formal qualities, a vitality abundantly present and manifesting itself here through striking affirmations, elsewhere through dreamy thoughts or a communicative enthusiasm. From this first hearing, we retain above all the memory of a slow movement that sings tirelessly, sustaining and progressing without any weakening. Of the entire known work of the Master, and let us add of all Belgian music, it is one of the finest pages we have heard. But it would be very unjust to diminish the merit of such a vast composition by attributing all its seduction to one of its parts. And if we have spoken first of the Andante, it is without losing sight of the harmonious whole to which it belongs. From the moment when the warlike call of the beginning resounds until the moment of its triumphant reappearance in the superb peroration of the work, the composer Albert Dupuis captivates us by the spontaneity of his inspiration, the ardor and richness of his thought, the clarity, the logic, and the perpetual animation of his discourse.” (Albert Demblon.)