Marcelle de Lacour

By the time of the outbreak of the Second World War she had given numerous recitals in France, Great Britain and other European countries.

Her repertoire as soloist, either with small groups of musicians or large orchestras, encompassed the music of the Baroque and Classical periods (Loeillet, Bodin de Boismortier, Lalande, Lully, Charpentier, Couperin, Rameau, Purcell, Pachelbel, Bach, Schütz, Buxtehude, Scarlatti, Handel, Telemann).

She also gave recitals of contemporary compositions by composers, including Bohuslav Martinů, Herbert Murrill, Florent Schmitt, Alexandre Tansman, and Francis Poulenc, who dedicated several works to her.

After 1945 she performed with the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France as well as with the oboist Pierre Pierlot, the Pasquier Trio and the flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal.

On radio she created the programme Les tournois du royaume de la musique [Tournaments through the realm of Music], a music competition for young artists, and also took part in the Analyse spectrale de l'Occident [Spectral Analysis of the West], a series on Western culture instigated by the composer Henry Barraud.