Arthur De Greef was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Born in Louvain

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

, he won first prize in a local music composition when he was only 11, and subsequently enrolled at the Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 Conservatoire. His main teacher there was Louis Brassin

Louis Brassin

Louis Brassin was a Belgian pianist, composer and music educator. He is best known now for his piano transcription of the Magic Fire Music from Wagner's Die Walküre.-Career:...

, a former pupil of Ignaz Moscheles

Ignaz Moscheles

Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.-Sources:Much of what we know about Moscheles's life...

, although he also took lessons from other staffers at the institution, including Joseph Dupont

Joseph Dupont (violinist)

Henri-Joseph Dupont was a Belgian violinist, leader, theatre director and conductor.-Life:Dupont was born in Ensival, Verviers. He studied the violin at the Liège and Brussels conservatoires and won a Belgian Prix de Rome for composition in 1863...

, François-Auguste Gevaert

François-Auguste Gevaert

François-Auguste Gevaert was a Belgian composer.His father was a baker, and he was intended for the same profession, but better counsels prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Ghent Conservatory, where he studied under Edouard de Sommere and Martin-Joseph Mengal...

 and Fernand Kufferath.

After graduating with high distinction from the Conservatoire at the age of 17, De Greef went to Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 to complete his studies under Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

. He was a Liszt pupil for two years.

Following the Weimar sojourn, De Greef embarked on a successful career as a concert pianist, travelling widely. He was a friend of Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg

Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...

, whose Piano Concerto he had played publicly in 1898, and who called him "the best performer of my music I have met with". In addition, he enjoyed the endorsement of Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

. British critic Jonathan Woolf has written: "De Greef was, in all respects, an intensely musical, non-sensationalist, eloquent and impressive musician and whilst not being averse to some of the interventionist tactics of his contemporaries (retouching of the score) remained sympathetically self-effacing".

De Greef composed a sizeable quantity of music, virtually all of which is now unheard. Among his works are two piano concerto

Piano concerto

A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

s. He was a devoted teacher, and taught piano at the Brussels Conservatoire for many years.

Orchestral

• The Marketeeress (1878)
• Slanting rays of the sun (1913)
• Humoresque (1928)
• Italian Suite
• Flandre Suite
• Autumn Impressions
• Four Flemish songs with accompaniment of Vielles

Concertante works

• Fantasy on Flemish Folk Songs for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 3 (1892)
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in C (1914)
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in B flat major (1930)
• Cinq chants d'amour, for Soprano and Orchestra
• Piano Concertino (Concerto pour piano et petit orchestre)

Chamber music

• Quatre pièces caractéristiques pour violon et piano (ca. 1883).
• Sonata No. 1 in D for violin and piano (1896)
• Sonata No. 2 in C for violin and piano
• Six New Concert Studies
• Trio in F for violin, cello, and piano

Piano

• Coucher de Soleil
• Slanting rays of the sun (1913; Orchestrated version exists)
• Five études in concert form (Cinq études de concert) (1914–1918)
• Sonata in C minor for 2 Pianos (1928; 2 pianos)
• Valse-caprice (2 Pianos)

Recordings

His was the first complete recording of Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor

Piano Concerto (Grieg)

The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...

, but he had earlier recorded a cut version. He also recorded with Isolde Menges

Isolde Menges

Isolde Marie Menges was an accomplished English violinist who was most active in the first part of the 20th century.A native of Sussex, England, she became a student of Leopold Auer and Carl Flesch...

.

Other recorded works included

Liszt:

• Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Chopin

• Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op 35
• Waltz No. 1 in E flat, Op. 18
• Waltz No. 5 in A flat, Op. 42
• Waltz No. 6 in D flat, Op. 64, No. 1
• Waltz No. 11 in G flat, Op. 70, No. 1

Schubert

• Soirée de Vienne No. 6, arr. Liszt

Moszkowski

• Serenata in D, Op. 15, No. 1
• Etude in G, Op. 18, No. 3
• Waltz in E, Op. 34

A complete discography can be found here:.