Pleyel & Erard

When Marie Antoinette heard about the Duchess of Villeroy's fine new piano, she wanted one too. Who had built it? A certain young architect and engineer of Strasbourg named Sebastian Erard. Then let Sebastian Erard make another one for Versailles, let it be embellished with painting, gold-leaf and ivory. The instrument won the admiration of the court. Thereafter Piano-Maker Erard had more work than he and his brother could do.

Fifteen years later another man came to Paris from Strasbourg where a while before the patriots had almost guillotined him. He was the 24th son of an Austrian schoolmaster. His name was Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, composer of 29 symphonies, friend and pupil of Haydn. For a while he ran a music shop, published the first complete edition of Haydn's quartets. Mozart wrote of him: "How fortunate music would be if Pleyel could replace Haydn," but Composer Pleyel also turned to the manufacture of pianos. He played his pianos at the great courts of Europe, turned to farming in later life, died in 1831, the year of Sebastian Erard's death.

Last week, after 124 years of stiff competition, came word that the old firms of Pleyel and Erard had merged. Their instruments will henceforth be produced at the Pleyel works (St-Denis). Erard and Pleyel pianos are not the finest made in France (the Gaveau is considered finer). nevertheless they are first-class instruments. Pleyel owns the great modernistic Salle Pleyel in the Faubourg St-Honore.

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