Born in Vitry-le-François, Herbin entered the Conservatoire de Paris at 14 years old. There he studied piano with Isidore Philipp and composition with Noël Gallon and Henri Busser. He won two First Prizes. At 26, he accompanied the cellist Maurice Maréchal on a tour of the Middle East. But the war broke out and Herbin was mobilized in 1939. He was taken prisoner in Germany where he remained in captivity for nearly 5 years in several forced labour camps. Interned in very precarious conditions, he nevertheless managed to write many works: a Sonata for violin and piano, Deïrdre des Douleurs for chamber orchestra, Sonata for piano, Album d'images, Preludes baroques, for piano. Returning to Paris in 1945, he resumed his activities as a pianist and composer, and premiered his first piano quartet in 1949 with the Trio Pasquier. In the early 1950s, the State and Radio placed orders with him. It was on this occasion that he composed Trois Songes pour orchestre and the Concerto pour piano whose posthumous premiere was ensured in 1956 by Vlado Perlemuter.
Tragic end
On September 1, 1953, René Herbin, accompanied by the violinist Jacques Thibaud, boarded the Paris-Saigon flight, the city where the musicians were expected to perform in concert. As they approached the planned stopover at Nice airport, their plane crashed on mount Cimet in the French Alps. There were no survivors among the 42 people on board.
Association
In 1992, Elizabeth Herbin, pianist and daughter of the composer, founded the Société Musicale René Herbin, which was then presided by Vlado Perlemuter and Henri Dutilleux. Its purpose is to make the man and his work known, and to disseminate his music, which is still too confidential and not very well recorded. It thus repairs what the untimely death of a 42-year-old musician recognized by his peers, took away from the French musical life of the first half of the 20th century.
1949: Baptême, for piano, flute, oboe, violin, cello and harp
1949: Sonata for piano and cello
1950: Petite suite Radio française, for piano
1950: Petites pièces, for piano
1950: Petite suite Radio-française "dans l'esprit" des vieux contes français, for grand orchestre
1951: Divertissement, for chamber orchestra
1951: Divertissement, for piano, 2 violins, cello, double bass and drums
1951: Divertissement, for violin and piano
1951: Dona Rosita ou le langage des fleurs, for piano, 2 violins and cello
1951: Dona Rosita ou le langage des fleurs, for voice and piano
1951: Trois songes, for large orchestra
1951: 4 impromptus, for piano
1952: Concerto pour piano et orchestre
1952: Polka, for 4-handed piano
1953: Dance for piano and saxophone in Eb
1953: Rossini-boutique-fantasque, for 2 pianos
1953: Une fausse gavotte, for piano and clarinet in B flat
Recordings
René Herbin: 1st Quartet for piano and string trio, Élisabeth Herbin, piano; Alexis Galpérine, violin; Bruno Pasquier, viola; Mark Drobinsky cello, CD - 711, Éd. Gallo, 1993.
