Hélène de Montgeroult facts for kids

Hélène de Montgeroult by Richard Cosway c. 1786 (lead mine, highlights of white - bequeathed to the Louvre by his son, Aimé Horace His of La Salle).

Hélène de Nervo de Montgeroult (2 March 1764 – 20 May 1836) was a French pianist and composer.

Career

She was born into an aristocratic family in Lyon and studied piano with Nicolas Joseph Hüllmandel and Jan Ladislav Dussek. She married the Marquis de Montgeroult who died as an Austrian prisoner in 1793.

Reportedly it was respect for her compositions that allowed her to survive the French Reign of Terror. A set of improvisations on La Marseillaise, performed for the Committee of Public Safety, earned her her freedom after she was imprisoned in the Revolution due to her aristocratic background. After her husband's death, Montgeroult took a position at the new Paris Conservatoire in 1795, the first female professor ever to be appointed there and taught for two years. Afterwards she published two volumes of music.

She died in Florence, Italy.

Published works

• Trois sonatas pour le forte-piano, Op. 1 (Paris, 1795).
• Trois sonatas pour le forte-piano (avec accompagnement de violon pour le 3e Sonate), Op. 2 (Paris, 1800; surviving edition 1803).
• Pièce pour le forte piano, Op. 3 (Paris, 1804).
• Fantaisies, nos. 1, 2, 3 [Op. 4?] (Paris, [1810?]).
• Trois sonatas pour le forte-piano, Op. 5 (Paris, 1811).
• Six nocturnes à voix seule avec accompagnement de piano-forte, Op. 6 (Paris, [by 1807].
• Cours complet pour l'enseignement du forte-piano, 3 vols (Paris, 1820). Contains 972 exercises and 114 études.

Selected recordings

• Hélène de Montgeroult, La Marquise et la Marseillaise, Éditions Hortus (CD, 2008).
• Études nos. 97, 110, etc., on Hélène de Montgeroult: A la source du piano romantique", Hortus (CD, 2009).
• Hélène de Montgeroult, Orchid Classics (CD, 2017).
• Hélène de Montgeroult : The Complete Piano Sonatas, Naxos – Grand Piano Records (2CD, 2021).

See also

In Spanish: Hélène de Montgeroult para niños