Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet, comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau

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Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet was born on 3 June 1837 as Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay. In childhood she developed considerable aptitude as a pianist. On 11 April 1860 she married Eugène Arnould Henri Charles François Marie, comte de Mercy-Argenteau (22 Aug. 1838-2 May 1888). She met Franz Liszt the next year. In the early 1880s she developed an interest in Russian music. This led to her studying the Russian language, translating some vocal music by several Russian composers, and arranging concerts and recitals of their music. Her advocacy of music by The Mighty Handful favored that of César Cui and facilitated the production of the latter's opera Prisoner of the Caucasus in Liège in 1886. Cui's collection of piano pieces entitled À Argenteau is a musical reminiscence of the count and countess' estate in Belgium. La Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau died of cancer on 8 November 1890 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

[edit] Writings

• César Cui: esquisse critique. Paris: Fischbacher, 1888.
• The Last Love of an Emperor: reminiscences of the Comtesse Louise de Mercy-Argenteau, née Princesse de Caraman-Chimay, describing her association with the Emperor Napoléon III and the social and political part she played at the close of the Second Empire. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page & Co., 1926.

[edit] Bibliography

• Bronne, Carlo. La Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau. 2nd ed. Liège: Soledi, 1945.
• Suttoni, Charles. "Liszt and Louise de Mercy-Argenteau," Journal of the American Liszt Society, v. 34 (1993), pp. 1-10.