belonged to that founding generation which established the fame of the French hornists and passed it on through a school of their own. Duvernoy joined the orchestra of the Comédie-Italienne as a hornist in 1788. In 1797 he moved to the Paris Opéra, and from 1799 he served there as solo hornist. In 1801 he was, together with other solo wind players, relieved of normal opera duties in order to concentrate on his solo work. From that time he also played in the „Chapelle Musique“, which was re-established by Napoleon Bonaparte, who is said to have been an admirer of Duvernoy. From 1795 he also taught at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique (alongside, at times, up to eight other hornists). Several different schools of horn playing developed there. While there had always been a division into 1st and 2nd horn, the hornist Rudolphe argued for a comprehensive use of the full range, whereas, especially later, Dauprat argued for a clear separation into cor alto and cor basso. Duvernoy took the middle path in the truest sense of the word: in his printed horn method, for instance, he too distinguished between a high and a low horn and recommended differently sized mouthpieces, but in solo playing he advocated the „cor mixte“. This meant renouncing the particularly high and low notes; the middle range (around one and a half octaves) was rarely left, with greater emphasis placed instead on melodiousness. In 1816 Duvernoy retired, though he continued to hold the position of solo hornist in the Chapelle Musique until 1830. He died in Paris on July 19th, 1838. Duvernoy's works (12 concertos for horn and numerous chamber music works) were not only printed in Paris; they were also published in Germany, for example by Simrock and Breitkopf.
1st Divertissement for piano and horn (or violin)
This work was written as part of a series of divertissements, around 1820. In 2008, his 4th Divertissement was the set piece at the Concours International de Cor in Paris – a good occasion to make his other chamber music works available.
