History
During the mid-19th century, Escoffier was highly active as a performer, primarily in string quartets; he was a member of the Quatour Alard-Chevillard and Société Alard et Franchomme, performing with violinist Jean-Delphin Alard and cellists Auguste Franchomme and Alexandre Chevillard (1811–1877). He was active in Parisian salons and the Société académique des enfants d'Apollon, of which he was president in 1853. He achieved virtually universal critical acclaim as a performer, with special praise for his smooth, broad viola sound. He devoted his efforts almost exclusively to the viola, in contrast to the majority of his contemporaries who went back and forth between the viola and violin. His biography was a mystery until the musicologist Jeffrey Cooper discovered an 1877 obituary of the successful Parisian violist Louis-Casimir Escoffier, who had died aged 75. Escoffier most likely took the Ney part of his pseudonym from Napoleon's marshal Michel Ney.
Read more about this topic: Casimir Ney
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