A European walk through Bordeaux 7

 

The Emerigon “Musical Circle.

32, Rue de Cheverus.

Le président Emérigon (1762-1847).

 

A group of music enthusiasts used to meet twice a week at the hotel located 12 Rue de Cheverus (now 32). The events were organised by lawyer, and then magistrate, Marc-Pierre-Marie Emerigon, who was a composer and violinist in his spare time, and his pianist wife. They called themselves the Cercle musical [musical circle], and their meetings were held on Sundays and Wednesdays through to the end of 1836.

In 1832, he married Georgina Dupont, a distinguished pianist. Under her influence, the Emerigon salon quickly became the meeting place of all Bordeaux music enthusiasts. Posterity conferred upon the couple the perennial reputation of an improbable musical duo. They invited eminent artists to their home, who performed at gala evenings in the salon located in Rue Judaïque (now Rue de Cheverus). It attracted the great artists visiting Bordeaux, such as the Belgian Alexandre-Joseph Artot, the Moravian Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1814-1865), pianists Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), Henri Herz (1803-1888) and the famous Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871), whose fame has since been eclipsed by that of Liszt and Chopin, as well as singers like Cornélie Falcon and Adolphe Nourrit. Emerigon, deemed a more than mediocre composer and performer, was happy to take up his bow alongside the famous violinist Pierre Rode.

Two months after the dissolution of the Cercle musical, Emerigon, who had become the presiding judge of the court of Bordeaux, set his sights on an even greater ambition, and so, to “promote and spread the love of music,” on 25 February 1837 he founded … …

 

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Return to Rue du Loup and continue
to Place Pey-Berland,
then turn right and walk to number 17.