Salle Gaveau

Salle Gaveau is a French classical and jazz music 1,020-seat concert hall opened in 1906 and located in Paris, France. The venue is named after a renowned piano manufacturer, "Gaveau Paris," that sponsored the initial construction, designed by architect Jacques-René Hermant (1855—1930); it was a common practice among European piano makers — see, for instance, Salle Pleyel or Bechstein Concert Hall in London. The venue was established by Étienne Gaveau (1872—1943), one of the sons of Joseph Gabriel Gaveau (1824—1903), the founder of "Gaveau Paris" in 1847. The company was prolific and critically acclaimed, ranking among the leading French piano makers alongside Érard and Pleyel. With outstanding acoustics and state-of-the-art stage equipment, Salle Gaveau hosted many distinguished pianists between 1909 and 1917, including Camille Saint-Saëns, Alfred Cortot, Lazare Lévy, Marguerite Long, George Enescu, Wilhelm Backhaus, and Claude Debussy. (Arthur Rubinstein, who was sponsored by Gaveau, later became highly critical of the brand's pianos, describing their "stiff unresponsive action" and "coldness of tone" in his 1973 autobiography My Young Years).