Marcelle Meyer was a French Pianist who premiered pieces by composers such as Daruis Milhaud, Erik Satie, and Igor Stravinsky. She studied under the pianist Ricardo Viñes who also taught Francis Poulenc as a young boy. Meyer was also a favorite of the French group of composers, Les Six. As an at testament to her importance in the group, below we see a painting of Les Six with Marcelle Meyer in the center.
Les Six 1922, Jacques-Émile Blanche.
Unfortunately, despite Meyer’s popularity amongst French composers, there are not many sources which carefully catalogue the details of her life. Much of what is known survives only as recordings of performances or brief personal anecdotes. One such anecdote I’ve discovered in a series of articles and interviews by Francis Poulenc. In the following excerpt Poulenc describes the first time he met Meyer during a lesson with Ricardo Viñes:
“Almost always, either before or after me, a young girl with great coils of hair over her ears would have her lesson. I used to listen through the door, astonished and extremely jealous. It was Marcelle Meyer. One day Viñes introduced us. Slightly humiliated over what she would have heard me playing, I said to her conceitedly, ‘You know, I’m mainly a composer.’
And I played her two pieces of pretentious rubbish. From then on we were friends. Whenever you hear works of mine played by Viñes or Marcelle Meyer, you can be sure it will be perfection itself.” [1]
This story comes from a transcription of a lecture which Poulenc gave at the Université des Annales in October of 1935. As it seems off the cuff, I don’t think Poulenc had any ulterior motives or real thesis in telling the story. However, it does certainly establish credibility of her talents as a pianist – especially if Poulenc could be so extremely jealous and astonished. I think this excerpt also provides some insight into her working relationship with Poulenc. If he was at least willing to play her pieces too, they must have been meeting as peers or at least on somewhat equal terms.
[1] Francis Poulenc, “My Teachers and Friends”, October 15th 1935, in Francis Poulenc: Articles and Interviews, ed. Nicholas Southon (New York: Routledge, 2016), 97.