Salle Érard

The Salle Érard is a music venue located in Paris, 13, rue du Mail, in the 2nd arrondissement.

It is part of the private mansion that belonged, from the 18th century onwards, to the Érard family of piano, harp, and harpsichord makers.

A first, rather small room, suitable for chamber music, existed during the first half of the 19th century.

A new hall was built in the late 1850s and redeveloped in 1877.

Of small dimensions, but well-isolated from city noise, and boasting good acoustics, it is particularly suited for chamber music.

During the 19th century and early 20th century, it was the setting for notable premieres and debuts for both compositions and performers, including:

Erik Satie (the orchestrations of his Gymnopédies by Claude Debussy),

Jacques Ibert, les histoires (1923),

Nellie Melba,

Ricardo Viñes,

Maurice Ravel, Miroirs (1906), Menuet antique (1892), Histoires naturelles with Jane Bathori (1907), Sonate pour violon et piano (1927), Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (Ravel) (1914),

Camille Saint-Saens (1860),

Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1888),

Claude Debussy, Triptyque Estampes (1904), Le Promenoir des deux amants (1911),

Alexandre Scriabine (1896),

Joseph Jongen,

André Caplet, Conte fantastique with Micheline Kahn on harp, (1923),

Vladimir de Pachmann (1882),

Charles Valentin Alkan (1837) and (1880),

Francis Poulenc,

Reynaldo Hahn, pianist Édouard Risler (1908),

Ernest Chausson, Viviane (1883),

César Franck, Le Chasseur maudit (1883),

Arthur Honegger, Le Cahier romand (1924),

Olivier Messiaen, Huit préludes (1930),

Maurice Delage, Sept haï-kaïs (1925),

Quatre poèmes hindous (1914),

Francis Planté,

Stéphan Elmas or Youra Guller.

Before the construction of the Maison de la Radio, the hall served as a recording studio for Radiodiffusion française.

Today, only the salon hosts concerts, the volumes of the hall itself having been repurposed (the volume of the spaces remains suggested by the organisation of the roofs, as well as by the old entrance facade at 11 rue Paul-Lelong). Nevertheless, it remains highly regarded for its acoustics and its rich history, both musical and artisanal.