Élie-Miriam Delaborde (born Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde; 7 February 18399 December 1913) was a French virtuoso pianist and composer. He was also renowned as a player of the pedal piano.

Early life

His birth was registered under the name of his mother Lina Eraïm Miriam, aged 38, of

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

, and an unnamed father. Delaborde was generally believed to be the illegitimate son of the composer and pianist

Charles-Valentin Alkan Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, amon ...

and one of his high-class married pupils. Delaborde was the maiden name of Antoinette, mother of

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. Being more renowned than either Victor Hugo or Honoré de Balz ...

, the author and sometime lover of Alkan's friend

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for Piano solo, solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown ...

. Some writers have seen some significance in this. Alkan's withdrawal from public life had also coincided with the birth and upbringing of Delaborde. Alkan and Delaborde also shared several similarities such as their similar skill in playing the pedal piano and both of them being parrot enthusiasts. It was claimed that the pianist

Isidor Philipp Isidor Edmond Philipp (first name sometimes spelled Isidore) (2 September 1863 – 20 February 1958) was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue of Jewish Hungarian descent. He was born in Budapest and died in Paris. Biography Isidor Philipp ...

averred that Delaborde detested his father, but this seems doubtful as Delaborde played Alkan's music and edited his works.

Career

He was a pupil of Alkan,

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

, and Adolf von Henselt. He made successful tours of England, Germany and Russia, and travelled with

Henri Vieuxtemps Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (; 17 February 18206 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th c ...

and

Henryk Wieniawski Henryk Wieniawski (; 10 July 183531 March 1880) was a Polish virtuoso violinist, composer, and pedagogue, who is regarded amongst the most distinguished violinists in history. His younger brother Józef Wieniawski and nephew :pl:Adam Tadeusz Wien ...

. In Spring of 1871, during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, he escaped from France to London with his 121

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

s and

cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...

s, as well as two pet

monkeys Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

. One of these monkeys he named Isadora, in honor of Isidor Philipp. In 1873 he was appointed professor at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

, where his pupils included

Olga Samaroff Olga Samaroff (August 8, 1880May 17, 1948) was an American pianist, music critic, and teacher. Among her teachers was Charles-Valentin Alkan's son, Élie-Miriam Delaborde. Her second husband was the conductor Leopold Stokowski. Samaroff was ...

(one-time wife of

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British-born American conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. H ...

), Aline van Barentzen, and Marie Poitevin, the dedicatee of

César Franck César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in present-day Belgium. He was born in Liège (which at the time of h ...

's '' Prelude, Chorale and Fugue''.

Personal life

Delaborde was a fencer, a passionate athlete, a bon vivant and a ladies' man. He also painted under the pseudonym "Miriam", and was a close friend of

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (, , 9October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano ...

' Piano Concerto No. 3 was dedicated to Delaborde. He was in the circle of

Pauline Viardot Pauline Viardot (; 18 July 1821 – 18 May 1910) was a French dramatic mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue of Spanish descent. Born Michelle Ferdinande Pauline García,FitzLyon, p. 15, referring to the baptismal name. Thbirth recorddigitized a ...

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...

and

Ernest Guiraud Ernest Guiraud (; 23 June 18376 May 1892) was an American-born French composer and music teacher. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet's opera '' Carmen'' and for Offenbach's opera '' Les contes d ...

Affairs

Delaborde was also a close friend of fellow composer

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

and his wife,

Geneviève Genevieve (; ; also called ''Genovefa'' and ''Genofeva''; 419/422 AD – 502/512 AD) was a consecrated virgin, and is one of the two patron saints of Paris in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Her feast day is on 3 January. Rec ...

. Delaborde may have been indirectly responsible for Bizet's death, which followed a swimming competition between the two, as a result of which Bizet caught a chill. After Bizet's death, Delaborde formed an alliance with Geneviève. Scholars have speculated that Delaborde and Geneviève were having an affair even before Bizet's death.Weber, Caroline. Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris. United States, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2018. The two had signed a marriage contract in August 1876, but they never got married.Macdonald, Hugh. Bizet. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 2014. In 1901 he became engaged to a much younger pupil, but the engagement also failed to result in marriage.

Death

Delaborde died on 9 December 1913, aged 74, and was buried at

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

on 11 December.

Compositions

His compositions included a youthful opera ''Maître Martin'', the opéra-comique ''La Reine dort'', the overture ''Attila'', preludes, studies and fantasies for piano (including a ''Grande Fantaise'' on Bizet's ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

''), a piano quintet, and songs. There is also a ''Scherzetto'' for chromatic harp. He also edited some of Alkan's music. Delaborde's output is significant, but minimal attention has been given to his works. The first acoustic recording in history of one of Delaborde's compositions was ''Étude d'après une petite Valse de V. Dolmetsch'', recorded by Vincenzo Maltempo in 2014, as a part of the Rarities of Piano Music at the "Schloss vor Husum" Festival.

Selected other works

* Cadence pour le Finale du concerto pour clavecin en ré mineur de J. S. Bach (1872) * Cadence sur l'Allegro du Concerto en sol, op. 58 de Beethoven. Piano (1878) * Etudes La bémol majeur (1889) * Etudes de concert. Piano. La bémol majeur. No 2 (1872) * Exercices de lecture. Piano. Op. 14, no 4 (1887) * Étude d'après une petite Valse de (1889) * Fantaisies from 'Carmen' Op. 8 . izet(1879) * Impromptu-valse Ré bémol majeur (1872) * Ouverture d'Attila (4 mains) (1879) * Paraphrase on Bundeslied Op. 122 eethoven(1872) * Petite marche villageoise (1872) * Prélude. Harpe ou piano. Do majeur (1903) * Préludes Op. 13 * Promenade de noctambules (1889) * Scherzetto. Harpe ou piano. Fa majeur (1903) * Transcriptions. Scherzetto. Symphonie. armontel(1879) * Menuet from 'L'Arlésienne' izet(1873) * Trois pièces pour harpe chromatique (système G. Lyon) ou piano (1903) * Valse de concert. Harpe ou piano. Ré bémol majeur (1903)

Sources

* Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954. * Smith, Ronald (2000), ''Alkan, the Man, the Music'', 2 vols in 1, London: Averill and Kahn.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Delaborde, Elie-Miriam 1839 births 1913 deaths 19th-century French male classical pianists 19th-century French classical pianists Pedal piano players 19th-century French composers French male composers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Musicians from Paris Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Pupils of Franz Liszt