Jules de Swert

Jules de Swert (1843–1891, Louvain–Ostende) was a leading figure of the Belgian cello school. A student of François Servais at the Brussels Conservatory, he won the Premier Prix in 1859 and went on to hold prestigious positions as soloist and concertmaster in Düsseldorf, Weimar, Berlin, and Vienna. De Swert composed two cello concertos, numerous fantasies, and chamber works, including Pensée Élégiaque, dedicated to Servais’s son Joseph, which conveys a mood of meditative serenity.