Viviane Spanoghe has long been an established figure in Belgian musical life; her exceptional services to contemporary Belgian music were recognised when she was awarded the Fugatrofee Prize of the Union of Belgian Composers for her life’s work to date in 2020. She has premiered works by Dirk Brossé, Elias Gistelinck, Franklin and Jean Gyselynck, Marc Matthys, Peter Swinnen, Jan Van Landeghem and Annelies Van Parijs that were composed especially for her or dedicated to her, and many of which she has made part of the concert repertoire. She also has a particular interest in the works of the great Belgian composers of the past: François Servais, Paul Gilson, Godfried Devreese, Henri Vieuxtemps and in particular César Franck, Joseph Jongen, Guillaume Lekeu and Albert Huybrechts. Her long-time musical partner, the eminent pianist Andre De Groote, with whom she has performed almost the entire repertoire for cello and piano, has also recently written several works for her.
Her discography is as extensive as it is varied, with first recordings of an arrangement of Beethoven’s String Trio op. 3 (published in his lifetime as a duo for piano and cello as op. 64), the Nocturne & Saltarello by George Enescu, the "Sonate Synthétique" by the practically unknown French composer Jeanne Barbillion as well as many first recordings of works by contemporary Belgian composers, Armenian composers unknown abroad, and the Maltese composer Charles Camilleri. She has also recorded much of the repertoire for cello and orchestra as well as chamber works, including her own arrangement of Georg Philipp Telemann’s solo sonata in D major for viola da gamba from the collection Der getreue Music- Meister. Her recording, made in 1984 of Shostakovitch's two cello concertos with Emil Tabakov conducting the Sofia Soloists Symphony Orchestra, re-edited with the addition of the same composers two sonatas for cello and piano in 2010, shows their reference value, as confirmed by international critical acclaim. Other recordings, released on Naxos, Etcetera, Talent, Adda, RGIP, and especially her recording of Bach's six suites for solo cello released on Solal, have also been highly praised. Together with her new duo partner Jan Michiels, she has recently recorded a deeply-felt performance of works by Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya and Alfred Schnittke. Also the recording with French sonatas for cello and piano by Jean Huré, Jeanne Barbillion and Joseph-Guy Ropartz bears witness to her openness, curiosity, joy of discovery, comprehensive knowledge of the repertoire, and unerring sense for musical quality.
She has based her artistic credo on what she learnt from her teachers János Starker and Maria Kliegel: relaxed, conscious, precise and sincere music-making linked to a personal belief in serving the music without compromise and in finding one’s own individual sound, this being characterised by a deep and warm sonority that enables a full rendering of the inherent spirit of the music. This demands both absolute fidelity to the authentic musical text and intensive communication with the audience.
Viviane Spanoghe has devoted herself intensively to teaching for four decades, 30 years of which she has spent at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.
She is ready to continue sharing her vast experience as performing artist and teacher with the future generations
