Édouard Risler
Encyclopedia
Joseph-Édouard Risler was a French
pianist
.
(Germany) of a German mother and an Alsatian
father. He studied under Louis Diémer
, Théodore Dubois
and Émile Descombes
at the Conservatoire de Paris
from 1883 to 1890. In 1891 he became a good friend of Emmanuel Chabrier
and visited and corresponded with the older composer. He then completed his studies in Germany with Klindworth
, d'Albert
and Stavenhagen
. He was the répétiteur at the Festpielhaus
, Bayreuth in 1896.
He soon made a mark on the music world as one of the important French pianists of his time, open to the music of his time as well as the romantic German repertoire. He gave several major cycles : the 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven
from October to December 1905, at the Salle Pleyel
, the complete works of Frédéric Chopin
and The Well-Tempered Clavier
of Johann Sebastian Bach
.
From 1906, Risler devoted much time to teaching and became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1923. He married Émilie Girette, an amateur singer for whom Gabriel Fauré
had written several of his songs. He corresponded regularly with Reynaldo Hahn
and played in the première of the Sonatine in C major of Hahn in April 1908, at the Salle Érard
. He died in Paris
in 1929.
Emmanuel Chabrier
dedicated his Bourrée fantasque
to him, and Enrique Granados
the Coloquio en la reja, extract of Goyescas
.
Risler made a piano transcription of Richard Strauss
's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Biography
Risler was born in Baden-BadenBaden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
(Germany) of a German mother and an Alsatian
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
father. He studied under Louis Diémer
Louis Diémer
Louis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...
, Théodore Dubois
Théodore Dubois
François-Clément Théodore Dubois was a French composer, organist and music teacher.-Biography:Théodore Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne. He studied first under Louis Fanart and later at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1861...
and Émile Descombes
Émile Descombes
Émile Descombes was a French pianist and teacher.Little is known about his life, except that he is variously described as an "associate", "disciple" and possibly even one of the last pupils, of Frédéric Chopin....
at the Conservatoire de Paris
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...
from 1883 to 1890. In 1891 he became a good friend of Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
and visited and corresponded with the older composer. He then completed his studies in Germany with Klindworth
Karl Klindworth
Karl Klindworth was a German composer, pianist, conductor, violinist and music publisher.-Biography:Klindworth was born at Hanover in 1830. For a time he conducted a traveling opera troupe, but settled in Hanover as a teacher and composer. From there he went to Weimar, 1852, and studied the piano...
, d'Albert
Eugen d'Albert
Eugen Francis Charles d'Albert was a Scottish-born German pianist and composer.Educated in Britain, d'Albert showed early musical talent and, at the age of seventeen, he won a scholarship to study in Austria...
and Stavenhagen
Bernhard Stavenhagen
Bernhard Stavenhagen was a German pianist, composer and conductor. His musical style was influenced by Franz Liszt, and as a conductor he was a strong advocate of new music.-Biography:...
. He was the répétiteur at the Festpielhaus
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner...
, Bayreuth in 1896.
He soon made a mark on the music world as one of the important French pianists of his time, open to the music of his time as well as the romantic German repertoire. He gave several major cycles : the 32 sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
from October to December 1905, at the Salle Pleyel
Salle Pleyel
The Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...
, the complete works of Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
and The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
.
From 1906, Risler devoted much time to teaching and became professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1923. He married Émilie Girette, an amateur singer for whom Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
had written several of his songs. He corresponded regularly with Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie....
and played in the première of the Sonatine in C major of Hahn in April 1908, at the Salle Érard
Sébastien Érard
Sébastien Érard , born Sébastien Erhard, was a French instrument maker of German origin who specialised in the production of pianos and harps, developing the capacities of both instruments and pioneering the modern piano....
. He died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1929.
Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
dedicated his Bourrée fantasque
Bourrée fantasque
Bourrée fantasque is a piece of music for solo piano by Emmanuel Chabrier , being one of his last major completed works.-Background:...
to him, and Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
the Coloquio en la reja, extract of Goyescas
Goyescas
Goyescas, Op. 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados , is a piano suite written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. This piano suite is usually considered Granados's crowning creation and was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, although the piano pieces have not been authoritatively...
.
Risler made a piano transcription of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.
Premieres given by Risler
Risler premiered the following works:- Ernest ChaussonErnest ChaussonAmédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
: Quelques danses (1897) - Emmanuel ChabrierEmmanuel ChabrierEmmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
: Ronde champêtre, Ballabile, Feuillet d'album (3 April 1897) - Paul DukasPaul DukasPaul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
: Sonate in E flat minor (Salle Pleyel, 10 May 1901) - Dukas: Variations, interlude et finale sur un thème de Rameau (23 May 1903)
- Georges EnescoGeorge EnescuGeorge Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
: Variations pour 2 pianos (with Alfred CortotAlfred CortotAlfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon, Vaud, in the...
) - Gabriel FauréGabriel FauréGabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
: DollyDollyDolly may refer to one of the following:*Camera dolly, platform that enables a movie or video camera to move during shots*Dolly , a portable anvil*Dolly , for towing behind a vehicle...
(with Alfred Cortot; 1898); Impromptu No. 4 (1907); Barcarolles Nos. 6 and 8 (the latter 1907) - Albéric MagnardAlbéric MagnardLucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...
: Promenades (Concerts Durand 1911).
Discography of Risler
Risler's recordings consist of only 18 sides produced in 1917 by Pathé, which were released in full by Marston Records in 2007 as "Édouard Risler: Pathé Paper-Label Discs, Paris 1917". They were also released in full by the Symposium label in 2002 and (at least in the most part) by The Piano Library in 1999.- Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
- Sonata in A, Op. 26: Finale - Allegro
- Sonata in E, Op. 31, No. 3: Second Movement - Scherzo
- Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58: Second Movement - Andante con moto (solo piano transcription by Risler)
- Emmanuel ChabrierEmmanuel ChabrierEmmanuel Chabrier was a French Romantic composer and pianist. Although known primarily for two of his orchestral works, España and Joyeuse marche, he left an important corpus of operas , songs, and piano music as well...
- Idylle (No. 6 from Pièces pittoresques)
- Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
- Etude in G, Op. 10, No. 5
- Nocturne in F, Op. 15, No. 2
- Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4
- Waltz in C minor, Op. 64, No. 2
- François CouperinFrançois CouperinFrançois Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...
- Le tic-toc-choc, ou Les maillotins
- Louis-Claude DaquinLouis-Claude DaquinLouis-Claude Daquin , was a French composer of Jewish birth writing in the Baroque and Galant styles. He was a virtuoso organist and harpsichordist.-Life:...
- Le coucou
- Benjamin GodardBenjamin GodardBenjamin Louis Paul Godard was a French violinist and Romantic composer.-Biography:Born in Paris, Godard was a student of Henri Vieuxtemps. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Vieuxtemps and Napoléon Henri Reber and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany...
- Deuxième Mazurka, Op. 54
- Enrique GranadosEnrique GranadosEnrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
- Spanish Dance No. 10 in G
- Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 11 in A minor
- Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
- Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16, No. 2
- Jean-Philippe RameauJean-Philippe RameauJean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
- Le rappel des oiseaux
- Le tambourin
- Camille Saint-SaënsCamille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
- Valse nonchalante in D, Op. 110
- Carl Maria von WeberCarl Maria von WeberCarl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
- Invitation to the Dance, Op. 65