Marie Bigot de Morogues was born Marie Kiéné in Colmar in 1786, into a family of musicians: her mother, Catherine Leyer, was a pianist, and her father Joseph Kiéné a violinist and/or cellist. Her mother is thought to have been her first piano instructor. The family moved to Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in 1791, where Joseph Kiéné worked as a musician. There, Marie Kiéné made her concert debut at age sixteen, and met Paul Bigot de Morogues (1765-1853). They married in 1804 and had two children. They moved to Vienna the year they were wed: Paul became the personal librarian of Russian ambassador Count Andreï Razoumovsky, one of Beethoven’s earliest patrons. Marie soon became known as an exceptionally talented pianist, mainly through her performances of works by Beethoven and Haydn, whom she was personally acquainted with. The political situation forced the Bigots to leave Austria in 1809. They moved to Paris, where Marie also quickly found fame as a performer of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. She was friends with Cherubini and Auber, who taught her composition. From 1812 to 1817, her husband was imprisoned in Vilnius. She taught piano to ensure his upkeep, and met with great success. In 1816, both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn were her students: a deep bond of friendship would unite both families, far beyond even Marie’s death of lung disease in 1820. Her surviving body of work is rather small, but clearly shows her in-depth knowledge of the classical style: a Sonata, op. 1 (Vienna, circa 1806), a varied Andante, op. 2 (Vienna circa 1805), a Rondeau (Paris, 1818) and a Suite d’études (Paris, 1817 or 1818). An obituary read as follows: “Several of her works, which she declined to publish out of modesty, show that had she applied herself more specifically to this area of music, she could well have produced works able to stand alongside classics of the form”.

– Florence Launay –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]