Bernard Gavoty had nicknamed her “Madame Liszt” in Le Figaro: she gave more than two thousand five hundred recitals and recorded more than fifty discs, while teaching at the École normale de musique. Her epitaph runs to a single line, and it was her pupils who had them carved.
The story
On the stone of the pianist France Clidat there is a single line, signed by her pupils: “A France CLIDAT, ses élèves” — to France Clidat, from her pupils. Not the nickname “Madame Liszt” that Bernard Gavoty had given her in Le Figaro, not the two thousand five hundred recitals, not the fifty records made with the greatest orchestras in the world.
Born at Nantes on 29 November 1932, she trained with Lazare-Lévy and Emil Gilels, took her prize at the Paris Conservatoire and won, in 1956, the international Franz Liszt prize in Budapest, which opened an international career to her.
She was the first in the world to record the complete published piano works of Liszt, and she taught at the École normale de musique in Paris while giving master classes in Japan — passing Liszt on to generations of pianists, until Gavoty's nickname became a plain description.
She died in 2012. Nothing else appears on the stone — no Liszt, no Budapest, no orchestras: only the sentence her pupils had carved.
The grave
An epitaph of five words, which says nothing of the career and everything of the calling: “A France CLIDAT, ses élèves.” — to France Clidat, from her pupils. It was they who had it carved. Neither “Madame Liszt”, the nickname Bernard Gavoty had given her in Le Figaro, nor the two thousand five hundred recitals, nor the fifty discs.
On site, do not miss
A plain stone whose epitaph runs to five words: “A France CLIDAT, ses élèves.” — to France Clidat, from her pupils. No date of birth, no mention of a recital or a record.
Visitors' questions
Where is France Clidat's grave?
In Division 13 of Père-Lachaise. The epitaph runs to five words: “A France CLIDAT, ses élèves” — to France Clidat, from her pupils.
Gustave CharpentierWhat does her epitaph say?
“A France CLIDAT, ses élèves.” — to France Clidat, from her pupils. Five words, and not one for Liszt, the two thousand five hundred recitals or the fifty records: it is her pupils who sign, and that is all the stone keeps of her.
Michel PetruccianiWhy was she called “Madame Liszt”?
It was Bernard Gavoty who named her so in Le Figaro, and the nickname stuck. She had recorded more than fifty albums with the greatest orchestras and conductors of her day, and given two thousand five hundred recitals.
Frédéric ChopinDid she teach?
She did, at the École normale de musique de Paris, and in master classes in Japan. It is the one part of her life her grave mentions: the epitaph is signed “ses élèves”, her pupils, and says nothing of the rest.
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