A piano played by Chopin

manufactured by Erard

Mentioned on the inventory of the Érard company in February 1841, our piano was delivered to Ms. Zimmerman from Paris on April 10, returned on August 24 of the same year before being sent to Mr. Lefebvre from Lyon. It then was sold to the Tixier de La Chapelle family, owners of the castle of La Chapelle-Saint-Martial (Creuse) where it was reputedly played by famous pianist Frédéric Chopin during visits along his longtime lover, family friend George Sand, during the summers of 1841-1844.

In the first half of the 19th century, famed Parisian piano makers Ignace Pleyel and Sébastien Érard - and their successors after them - came across two virtuoso pianists who took full advantage of the technical innovations of their pianos to bring budding Romantic music to its apex. Austrian Franz Liszt and Polish Frédéric Chopin were not just great friends: both had the same taste in pianos… and in women, as their successive love affairs with writer George Sand would tend to prove. She hosted Chopin for the summer months in her Nohant retreat, first in 1839 and then every year from 1841 to 1846. There, Chopin composed his Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, as well as ballads, lullabies, sonatas and waltzes.

When in Nohant, Sand enjoyed late-summer excursions with her friends throughout the neighboring Creuse deparment, in search of stories on which to base her hundred or so novels. It was on one of those daytrips that she introduced writer Prosper Mérimée to the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestry hanging in the castle of Boussac.

Held in the castle of La Chapelle-Saint-Martial, our extremely rare mahogany grand piano by Érard was reputedly played by Frédéric Chopin on one of such outings, which he went along to in a horse-drawn carriage. At that time; the castle of La Chapelle-Saint-Martial was owned by the Tixier de La Chapelle family; the father was a member of the departmental council and the son became president of the Guéret district court. Although the meeting with Chopin is undocumented and the family tradition is oral, the presence of such a luxurious instrument by the pianist’s favorite manufacturer in a small Creuse village makes it likely that he wouldn’t resist playing it. Indeed, Chopin favored pianos made by Pierre Érard, which he enjoyed playing due to their lightness and precision. As he had been faithful to Érard pianos from the moment he had set foot in Paris in 1832, chances are that he wouldn’t pass the opportunity to play on such an instrument… and maybe even perform one of his pieces on it for the first time?

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