View source for Marcelle Meyer

{{short description|French pianist}}
{{Expand French|topic=bio|Marcelle Meyer|date=March 2015}}
[[File:Les Six Tableau.jpg|thumb|Meyer with ''Les Six'' - Group portrait by [[Jacques-Emile Blanche]]]]
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'''Marcelle Meyer''' ({{IPA|fr|mɛjɛʁ|lang}}; 22 May 1897{{spaced ndash}}17 November 1958) was a French [[pianist]]. She worked with a group of composers known as ''[[Les Six]],'' of whom she was the favored pianist.

==Biography==
{{Listen|image=none|help=no|type=music
|filename=01 - Invention à 2 voix BWV 772 en do majeur.ogg|title=Two-Part Invention No. 1, BWV 772 (0:59)|description=From J.S. Bach's [[Inventions and Sinfonias (Bach)|Inventions and Sinfonias]], piano performance (1948)}}
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=From ''[[Pièces de Clavecin#Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin (1726–1727)|Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin]]'' by [[Jean-Philippe Rameau]] (1953 recording)
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Marcelle Meyer was born in [[Lille]], France, on 22 May 1897. She was taught piano from the age of five by her sister Germaine, and entered the [[Conservatoire de Paris]] in 1911 at age 14, studying with [[Alfred Cortot]] and [[Marguerite Long]] and was awarded the "Premier Prix" at age 16. She then studied [[Maurice Ravel]] and Spanish composers with [[Ricardo Viñes]]. She coached with [[Claude Debussy]] about how to play his Preludes after having met him when she played the premiere performance of [[Erik Satie]]'s ''[[Parade (ballet)|Parade]]'' in 1917. Meyer became Satie's favored pianist and premiered [[Francis Poulenc]]'s Sonata for [[piano four hands]] with the composer. She premiered several of his other works and recorded with him. In the early 1920s she played for [[Darius Milhaud]] and [[Igor Stravinsky]]. She became famous for her talent<ref>[[Jean-Pierre Thiollet]], ''88 notes pour piano solo'', "Solo nec plus ultra", Neva Editions, 2015, {{p.|51}}. {{ISBN|978 2 3505 5192 0}}.</ref> and gave recitals in England, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as giving many premieres, including works by [[Arthur Honegger]], [[Alexis Roland-Manuel]], and [[Igor Markevitch]].<ref>{{AllMusic|type=artist|id=mn0002275043|author=Uncle Dave Lewis|title=Biography}}</ref> She was also among those pioneers who re-discovered in France the keyboard music of 
[[Johann Sebastian Bach]], [[Jean-Philippe Rameau]], [[François Couperin]] and [[Domenico Scarlatti]].

In 1922 [[Jacques-Émile Blanche]] painted Marcelle Meyer in the company of [[Jean Cocteau]] and [[Les Six]], a group of composers consisting of [[Georges Auric]], [[Louis Durey]], [[Arthur Honegger]], [[Darius Milhaud]], [[Francis Poulenc]] and [[Germaine Tailleferre]].

She died on 17 November 1958 aged 61 after suffering a heart attack while playing in her sister's Paris apartment.

The actor [[Pierre Bertin]] was her first husband, with whom she had a daughter (Marie Bertin). She later married Carlo Di Vieto, an Italian lawyer, with whom she had a second daughter (Anne-Marie Di Vieto).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*[http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Meyer-Marcelle.htm Short biography], bach-cantatas.com

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Marcelle}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1958 deaths]]
[[Category:Musicians from Lille]]
[[Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century French women classical pianists]]
[[Category:20th-century French classical pianists]]