Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot (12 February 183322 October 1914) was a French pianist, teacher and composer. He was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1833, the son of the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot and his then common-law wife, the famed soprano

Maria Malibran Maria Felicia Malibran (24 March 1808 – 23 September 1836) was a Spanish singer who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality ...

(they were to marry when Charles-Wilfrid was three, but his mother died only three months later as a result of a fall from a horse, while pregnant with Charles-Wilfrid's sibling). Charles-Wilfrid was brought up mostly by his aunt,

Pauline Viardot Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a nineteenth-century French mezzo-soprano, pedagogue and composer of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García, her name appears in various forms. When it is not simply "Pauli ...

. His stepmother, Maria Huber, was an orphan who had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, the alleged natural father of

Sigismond Thalberg Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...

. Thalberg was one of Charles-Wilfrid's earliest teachers. He became a professor of piano at the École Niedermeyer, and later at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

, where his pupils included

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

and

Ricardo Viñes Ricardo Viñes y Roda (, ca, Ricard Viñes i Roda, ; 5 February 1875 – 29 April 1943) was a Spanish pianist. He gave the premieres of works by Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Falla and Albéniz. He was the piano teacher of the composer Francis Pou ...

. His private students included

Enrique Granados Pantaleón Enrique Joaquín Granados y Campiña (27 July 1867 – 24 March 1916), commonly known as Enric Granados in Catalan or Enrique Granados in Spanish, was a composer of classical music, and concert pianist from Catalonia, Spain. ...

. As a teacher, he insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados's own teaching of pedal technique. He composed four piano concertos. There is also a Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 61. His Flute Sonata, Op. 64 has been recorded. Many of his scores are preserved at the Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ravel dedicated his ''

Rapsodie espagnole ''Rapsodie espagnole'' is an orchestral rhapsody written by Maurice Ravel. Composed between 1907 and 1908, the ''Rapsodie'' is one of Ravel's first major works for orchestra. It was first performed in Paris in 1908 and quickly entered the intern ...

'' to Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot.Cantorion
/ref> He died at

Sceaux-du-Gâtinais Sceaux-du-Gâtinais (; literally "Sceaux of the Gâtinais") is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. See also *Communes of the Loiret department The following is the list of the 325 communes of the Loiret department of ...

in 1914, aged 81.

Genealogy

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beriot, Charles-Wilfrid de 1833 births 1914 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century French composers 19th-century French male classical pianists 19th-century French male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians French Romantic composers French male classical composers French music educators Musicians from Paris Piano pedagogues