Camille Pleyel

Camille Pleyel (18 December 1788, Strasbourg — 4 May 1855, Paris) was a French virtuoso pianist, publisher, and piano maker, owner of Pleyel et Cie company established in 1807 by his father, Ignaz Pleyel (1757—1831), and founder of Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris. Camille studied with composer and pianist Jan Ladislav Dusík. In 1815, he joined the family business as a partner. Father and son introduced a highly successful pianino model, a vertically-strung "cottage" upright piano based on the design of British maker Robert Wornum (1780—1852). Camille took over the business after his father's retirement in 1824; like many other European piano makers, he strived to catch the attention of prominent pianists (what Bösendorfer did with Franz Liszt, for instance). Pleyel joined forces with Friedrich Kalkbrenner and finally succeeded — endorsed by Frédéric Chopin, who later favored Pleyel pianos above all other brands. Other notable composers and pianists who preferred their instruments include Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, Manuel de Falla, and Alfred Cortot. By 1834, "Pleyel et Cie" employed 250 workers, producing over 1,000 instruments annually. The firm established two concert venues in the 1830s, a salon on rue Cadet and a 550-seat concert hall near the company's factory on rue Rochechouart. Pleyel was married to an outstanding pianist, Marie Félicité Denise Pleyel, née Moke (1811—1875). Their family life was rather tumultuous; Hector Berlioz was engaged to Marie before and so desperate in love that he purportedly conspired with her mother to murder newlyweds. Camille and Marie got divorced after four years due to her "multiple infidelities," and Pleyel married Emma Osborn (1817—1906). In 1850, Camille hired Auguste Wolff (1821—1887) as an assistant, who was promoted to partner in just two years. After Pleyel died in 1855, Wolff inherited the company. The "Pleyel et Cie" further strengthened its reputation and international fame with more experiments and construction advancements, such as optimal hammer placement and "overstringing" of grand pianos invented in the 1860s. Wolff patented several other innovations, including a transposing keyboard and a pedal piano. After he passed away in 1887, Wolff's son-in-law, Gustave Lyon (1857—1936), took over the business. Besides a broad range of grand and upright pianos, the company offered some experimental models; in 1890, they presented Duo-Clave, a double piano invented by Emanuel Moór. Pleyel also introduced one of the first chromatic, or "cross-strung" harps. Other curious novelties included a so-called "Jungle Piano," built in 1913 for Albert Schweitzer to use in his African hospital in Lambaréné (made from tropical wood more suitable for harsh climate), or a double-manual piano with enlarged keys constructed for pianist Pierre Hans (1886—1960) in the early 1920s, who had abnormally thick fingers and couldn't comfortably play the conventional keyboard. (This modification, dubbed "Hans piano," became popular and was produced until the end of the Second World War, with several composers even commissioning original works for the instrument, like August De Boeck, as heard on the 2011 CD album released by Phaedra.) In late 1924, Pleyel sponsored the construction of a 3,000-seat concert hall on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, near Place de l'Etoile in Paris; Gustave Lyon, who was an expert acoustician, personally supervised the design. Salle Pleyel was inaugurated in October 1927 with a concert by Orchestre De La Société Des Concerts Du Conservatoire conducted by Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, and Philippe Gaubert. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression became fatal to Pleyel et Cie, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1933. The Credit Lyonnais bank took over the concert hall, branching out piano manufacturing.