Amédée Méreaux
Amédée Méreaux (full name Jean-Amédée Lefroid de Méreaux) (Paris, 17 September 1802 – Rouen, 25 April 1874) was a French musicologist, pianist, and composer. He was the author of Les clavecinistes de 1637 à 1790, written from 1864 to 1867, which had essays on the composers it mentioned.[1] His grandfather, Nicolas-Jean Lefroid de Méreaux (1745–1797), was a composer of operas and oratorios, while his father, Jean-Nicolas Lefroid de Méreaux, was an organist and pianist and was a composer of piano sonatas.[2] He was a friend of Frédéric Chopin.
His music, while obscure, is somewhat known for its sometimes immense difficulties ( Marc-André Hamelin thinks that his piano works are sometimes more difficult than even those of Charles-Valentin Alkan[3]), and his most famous work is his 60 Études, Op. 63. For example, his "Bravura" étude, Op. 63 No. 24, has passages where the pianist's two hands cross over each other simultaneously every quaver, at the speed of
References
- ↑ "Amédée Méreaux - Unknown French composer reviving thread. - Piano World Piano & Digital Piano Forums". Pianoworld.com. Retrieved 2012-09-29.
- 1 2 "Les Lefroid de Méreaux sont une famille d'artistes et de musiciens dont deux générations au moins s'illustrèrent à Paris" (in French). Mereaux.pagesperso-orange.fr. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
- 1 2 Interview with Marc-André Hamelin (retrieved March 27, 2017)
External links
- Free scores by Amédée Méreaux at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- Live performance of Méreaux's étude, Op. 63 No. 24 "Bravura", by an amateur pianist on YouTube