Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot (12 February 183322 October 1914) was a French pianist, teacher and composer.
He was born in Paris in 1833, the son of the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot and his then common-law wife, the famed soprano Maria MalibranSchubertiade Music400 lettres de musiciens (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).Naxos Charles-Wilfrid was brought up mostly by his aunt, Pauline Viardot. His stepmother, Maria Huber, was an orphan who had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, the alleged natural father of Sigismond Thalberg. Thalberg was one of Charles-Wilfrid's earliest teachers. Michael Kennedy, Joyce Bourne, The Oxford Dictionary of Music
He became a professor of piano at the École Niedermeyer, and later at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included Maurice Ravel and Ricardo Viñes. His private students included Enrique Granados. 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.Encyclopedia.com There is also a Sonata for Two Pianos, Op. 61.Online His Flute Sonata, Op. 64 has been recorded.Presto Classical Many of his scores are preserved at the Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder.Ricardo Viñes Piano Music Collection at the University of Colorado at Boulder
Ravel dedicated his Rapsodie espagnole to Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot.Cantorion
He died at Sceaux-du-Gâtinais in 1914, aged 81.
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