Hélène de Montgeroult
Recognised as one of the best fortepiano performers and improvisers of her time, and a published composer, de Montgeroult adapted to the rapid development of her instrument by makers such as Érard.
Hélène Antoinette Marie de Nervo was born on 2 March 1764 in Lyon into an unlanded family of recent nobility, though they did have lands in Beaujolais (inherited from J.
[clarification needed] Hélène spent some of her early years in Paris, where her brother Christophe Olympe de Nervo was born in 1765, and attended lessons with the great keyboard masters who stayed there in the final decades of the ancien régime.
During the early years of the French Revolution, the Marquis and Marquise associated with moderate revolutionaries, who supported the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, as well as certain significant political figures of the time (notably Bailly).
In 1791, following the performance of The Two Nicodemus in the Plain of Jupiter at the theatre on the Rue Feydeau, the Marquise found herself involved in a dispute with Viotti against several political newspapers during which she was dubbed a "shameful harpsichordist".
Madame de Montgeroult finally left France for London in July 1792 with her husband and Hugues-Bernard Maret before returning to Paris in December of the same year due to measures following the adoption of laws confiscating the property of emigrants.
The men of the expedition (including the Marquis of Montgeroult) were transported to the other side of the Lake Mezzola, imprisoned for 10 days at the prison of Gravedona, then held at the palace of the Dukes of Mantua.
They managed to find shelter in Vico Soprano where they attempted to obtain the support of their relations in Venice (François Noël), Genoa, Milan (the Count Alberto de Litta) and Florence.
While the Marquise and Marquis de Montgeroult were detained far from France, a letter of denunciation describing their behaviour and listing some of their possessions was sent on 1 August 1793 to the Jacobins of Paris.
The register of requisitions cites the Marquise of Montgeroult as "Citizen Gaultier-Montgeroult, artist, whose husband was cowardly murdered by the Austrians, to use her talent for patriotic celebrations".
The story of de Montgeroult's escape from the guillotine, where she performed an improvisation on the fortepiano based on "La Marseillaise" in front of the Revolutionary Tribunal, first appeared in the second half of the 19th century, recounted by Eugène Gautier and four other sources, with some variations.
The lack of previous written references to this episode, as well as its absence in the archives of the revolutionary tribunal, have led specialists to doubt the reality of this story after the publication of J. Dorival's book.
However, the money earned through a series of successful concerts in England at this time allowed her to acquire the Château de la Salle located in the canton of Senonches in 1794.
His father, Charles Antoine-Hyacinthe His (1769–1851), one of the editors of Le Moniteur Universel, acknowledged the child through his marriage with Hélène de Montgeroult on 1 June 1797 (12 Prairial, Year V).
On 3 August 1795 (16 Thermidor, Year III), the Law Concerning the Establishment of a Conservatoire of Music in Paris for the Teaching of this Art was announced and stated that the institution was looking for six harpsichord teachers.
This was an opportunity for her to bring close friends together (such as Maret, Prony or Girodet) and to play with musicians of her era such as Alexandre Boucher, Viotti, Baillot, Cherubini and Kreutzer.
When Montgeroult's life and musical works were reviewed on the BBC Radio 3 series Composer of the Week on 11–15 July 2022, the programme's regular presenter, Donald Macleod supplemented commercial recordings with some specially commissioned ones.
