Wilfrid Maggiar

Wilfrid Maggiar was born on 23 June 1914 in Alexandria (Egypt). He first studied piano at the Marseille conservatory under Paul Puccini and won a prix d'excellence. He then moved to Paris and continued his studies under Marguerite Long at the conservatory where he won a second prize. Some biographies also mention Alfred Cortot as his teacher, but I found no verification for this.
After his studies Wilfrid Maggiar gave recitals and concerts from time to time, but it seems that he did not put his complete dedication into a career as a concert pianist. The reviews of his concerts were nonetheless outstanding. For example the composer Maurice Imbert wrote the following lines about a concert by Wilfrid Maggiar in the "Journal des debats politiques et litteraires" on 4 February 1939:

"On sait qu'il appartient à la troupe nom breuse des disciples de l'éminente Mme Marguerite Long et qu'il quitta la classe par elle professée au Conservatoire après avoir remporté le laurier suprême dans des conditions sensationnelles. Depuis lors, il n'était guère sorti de sa retraite studieuse que pour paraître chez Colonne. En l'occurrence qui nous occupe, il a mis de la victoire dans sa carrière naissante, donnant sans cesse à croire que son nom est destiné à se trouver inscrit dans les annales où sont gardés ceux des grands pianistes."

It seems that Wilfrid Maggiar dedicated much of his artist's life into the perfection of works by Chopin, Liszt and Chaminade and recorded some of these works on records for Pathe, Nixa or Musidisc. Wilfrid Maggiar also worked as a piano teacher, but after all virtually no information is available about the activities of Wilfrid Maggiar after 1945.
Wilfrid Maggiar died on 12 June 1993 in Aix-en-Provence (France).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the song "La lettre de l'aime" for voice and piano by Wilfrid Maggiar. The work was composed in October 1939 and sets a poem by Renee Videcoq to music (which was written in September 1939, according to the manuscript).

Curiously the manuscript is dedicated twice: At the top is an undated dedication to "capitaine Rene Meyer" and at the bottom a dedication to "Cdt [Commandant] Videcoq" from 21 December 1939.