Composer of the Week: Montgeroult

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836): Get out of Jail Card

Get out of Jail Card

Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836), Get out of Jail Card

Donald Macleod recounts how Hélène de Montgeroult’s piano playing saved her life.

Donald Macleod continues his 'Tour de France' in a week exploring revolutionary French composer Hélène de Montgeroult. Today, how Helene’s keyboard skills saved her life.

Donald Macleod continues the second leg of his “Tour de France"; three weeks focused on French composers from different eras, running alongside the famous French cycle race. This week, Donald introduces us to the remarkable life story and unsung musical innovations of Hélène de Montgeroult.

There aren’t many composers who can claim that music saved their life – at least, in the literal sense. But for Hélène de Montgeroult, it was her astounding powers of improvisation that got her out of the stickiest situation imaginable, hauled in front of the guillotine during the French Revolution. This week, we’ll follow her rollercoaster tale and hear how she had her own revolutionary impact on the piano literature. Described as a precursor of Romanticism, anticipating the language of Schubert and Mendelssohn, audiences said her playing “made the keys speak”. She broke ground as the first female professor at the Paris Conservatoire and left behind 600 pages of music, including a complete course for piano which elevated the technical study into a miniature lyrical art form. As Donald pieces together her tantalising story, he’s joined by pianist Clare Hammond, who has spent recent years getting to know Montgeroult and recording an album of her études.

Today, Hélène is back home in Paris – but widowed, and locked up in a jail cell. Facing the guillotine, we hear how she used her musical talents to save her own life, and how she was set free with a new vocation. Donald and Clare discuss the impact of this extraordinary episode, as well as her pioneering approach as a piano teacher.

Etude No 114 in F minor
Bruno Robilliard, piano

Sonata in G minor, Op 2 No 1
Nicolas Horvath, piano

Thème varié dans le genre moderne
Edna Stern, fortepiano

Sonata in D major, Op 5 No 1 (2nd-4th mvts)
Hiroaki Takenouchi, piano

Etudes Nos 82 in C minor, 104 in G sharp minor, and 74 in C minor
Clare Hammond, piano


Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Cardiff

Composer of the Week: Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod surveys the life of French composer and pianist Hélène de Montgeroult.

Donald Macleod surveys the life of French composer, pianist and teacher Hélène de Montgeroult, the first professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire when it opened in 1795.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)

Get out of Jail Card

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3