A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Richault, Charles
RICHAULT, Charles Simon, head of a family of celebrated French music-publishers, born at Chartres, May 10, 1780, came early to Paris, and served his apprenticeship in the music-trade with J. J. Momigny. From him he acquired a taste for the literature of music and chamber compositions; and when he set up for himself at No. 7, Rue Grange Bateliere in 1805, the first works he published were classical. He soon perceived that there was an opening in Paris for editions of the best works of German musicians, and the early efforts of French composers of promise. His calculation proved correct, and his judgment was so sound that his business increased rapidly, and he was soon obliged to move into larger premises in the Boulevard Poissonnière, first at No. 16, and then at No. 26. Here he published Mozart's Concertos in 8vo score, and other works of the classical composers of Germany, and acquired the bulk of the stock of the firms of Frey, Naderman, Sieber, Pleyel, Petit, Erard, and Delahante. He moved in 1862 to No. 4 in the Boulevard des Italiens, at the precise spot where the Boulevard Haussmann would have come in if it had been finished. In this house he died, Feb. 20, 1866, well-known as a publisher of judgment and ability, a man of keen intellect, and a pleasant social companion. His son,
Guillaume Simon, born in Paris Nov. 2, 1806, had long been his father's partner, and continued in the old line of serious music. At the same time he realised that in so important a business it was well that the Italian school should be represented, and accordingly bought the stock of the publisher Pacini. On the death of this good man, Feb. 7, 1877, his son,
Leon, born in Paris Aug. 6, 1839, resolved to give a fresh impetus to the firm, which already possessed 18,000 publications. Bearing in mind that his grandfather had been the first to publish Beethoven's Symphonies and Mozart's Concertos in score; to make known in France the oratorios of Bach and Handel, and the works of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann; to bring out the first operas of Ambroise Thomas and Victor Massé; to encourage Berlioz when his 'Damnation de Faust' was received with contempt, and to welcome the orchestral compositions of Reber and Gouvy; M. Léon Richault above all determined to maintain the editions of the German classical masters which had made the fortune of the firm. Retaining all the works—didactic, dramatic, sacred, vocal, and instrumental—which still do honour to his establishment, he has carefully eliminated all obsolete and forgotten music. He has moreover already begun to issue new editions of all compositions of value of which the plates are worn out. His intelligent administration of his old and honourable business procured him a silver medal at the International Exhibition of 1878, the highest recompense open to music-publishers, the jury having refused them the gold medal.
A new catalogue of Richault's publications is in preparation, the old ones having long become obsolete. It will form a large volume, and will not in all probability be ready till 1882.[ G. C. ]