Marguerite Long

Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music.

Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoinette on November 13, 1874, in Nîmes, an old Roman town in the south of France. Long's parents were not musicians, but her mother highly emphasized the importance of music and "little Marguerite was not allowed to play wrong notes." Her sister, Claire Long, eight years older, was actually the person who influenced her in the pursuit of music. In 1883, when Marguerite was seventeen, Claire was appointed Professor of Piano at the Nîmes conservatory and Marguerite entered her sister's class for academic and musical studies. In 1886, shortly after receiving a Prix d’Honneur at the Nîmes Conservatory, Marguerite gave her first public performance at the age of eleven, performing Mozart's D Minor Concerto with orchestra.

After her debut, composer Théodore Dubois visited the Long family to encourage Marguerite to pursue her music studies in Paris. Even with several failed visits due to the bad health of her mother and the cancellation of the entrance exam of the Paris Conservatoire in 1888, Marguerite finally entered the Conservatoire in 1889, where she studied with Henri Fissot and took the Premier Prix from the Conservatoire on July 24, 1891. After the death of Fissot, Marguerite reached out to Antonin Marmontel, son of Antoine Marmontel who was Fissot's mentor, for lessons. He later on became a close friend to both Marguerite and her husband Joseph de Marliave, and even participated in the couple's wedding as one of their best men.

Marguerite and Joseph first met in August 1902 in Castelnaudary. After her performance, the young officer, Joseph, requested that the pianist perform a work by Gabriel Fauré, who at the time was still an unknown composer. Even though Marguerite had to refuse, she began learning Fauré's work after the concert. On February 26, 1906, the couple got married in Saint-Jean-de-Lauragais, with Marmontel and Fauré as their best men, and where Joseph was born.

Long's husband, Joseph de Marliave (1873–1914), was killed in August 1914 in action during World War I. The loss resulted in her fading away from public performances for the next three years. However, she lived through the tragedy with the belief that “What is important is not to spoil your life, but to be able to say to yourself: I did all I could. It is the only thing that can bring a little happiness.” Maurice Ravel dedicated the last movement, the Toccata, of his 1917 suite Le tombeau de Couperin to Marliave and Long gave the first performance of this work in 1919.

Shortly after the concert in Castelnaudary, Marmontel encouraged the pianist to learn Fauré's third Valse-Caprice, which she was able to perform for the composer in spring, 1903. The event led to another composition by Fauré, the Sixth Barcarolle, which the composer asked Marguerite to work on. It also initiated future collaborations in chamber music concerts between the two musicians.

In May 1904 when Long planned a concert of all-Fauré program, she received a warm letter from the composer praising her for the “most ideal perfection” playing. Shortly after Long's wedding to Marliave in February 1906, she was appointed Professor of the Paris Conservatoire by Fauré, who was the Director of the Conservatoire at the time.

Long's appreciation for Fauré's has certainly won her the title of being the one who “best understood Fauré’s music,” and whose “sensitivity best captured its very distinctive flavor.” Unfortunately, the friendship between Long and Fauré turned bitter. Some suspected that one reason was because of Fauré's newfound relationship with pianist Marguerite Hasselmans and the other was for not being promoted to “the professorship of a Classe Supérieure” at the Conservatorie in 1907 when her mentor, Marmontel, died. Long eventually succeeded Louis Diémer and received full professorship in 1920 and taught until 1940.