at the turn of the nineteenth century, the chamber music of bach became known in paris thanks to the intermediary marie bigot. born in colmar in 1786, she was a highly accomplished keyboard player. in 1804, she moved to vienna, where her performances attracted the admiration of haydn, salieri and beethoven; her husband served as librarian to beethoven's patron count razumovsky. in vienna she became familiar with the keyboard and chamber music of bach through the musical circles of baron van swieten, who had died a year before her arrival. obliged to return to france in 1809 because of the napoleonic wars, during the period 1809–1813 she proceeded to mount concerts in paris with the violinist pierre baillot and the cellist jacques-michel hurel de lamare. after 1813, as a result of political events, she restricted herself to teaching, taking felix mendelssohn and his sister fanny as pupils in 1816–1817.