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Born in Nyon in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Cortot studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the piano prize there in 1896. Between 1898 and 1901 he was an assistant conductor at Bayreuth Festspiel from 1898 to 1901, and in 1902 he conducted the Paris premiere of Götterdämmerung by Wagner. He later taught the piano at the Paris Conservatoire before founding the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris in 1919. His courses in musical interpretation were famous. He toured as a pianist all over the world, also appearing as guest conductor of many orchestras. He died in Lausanne.

Controversially, he supported the Vichy regime (he played in Nazi-sponsored concerts, for example) in France during the Second World War, which led to him being declared persona non grataPersona non grata (plural personae non gratae , literally "an unwelcome person," is a term generally reserved for diplomats. The term is more widely used than its narrow legal definition, but use in non-diplomatic cases is, essentially, an affectation. after the end of the war. His motivations for doing this have been disputed, but he was banned from performing publicly for a year, and his public image in France suffered greatly.

As a pianist, Cortot was particularly noted for his interpretations of Frederic Chopin and Robert SchumannThis article is about the German composer. For the German-born French politician, see Robert Schuman; for the youngest person to go to the north and south poles, see Robert Schumann (record-breaker . For the American composer, see William Schuman. Robert, and he made editions of both those composers' music. Many connoiseurs consider him to be the greatest interpreter of their works. Although he was possibly most famous for his wrong notes, the musicality of his performances is virtually unrivalled (it has been said that while he got many of his notes wrong, he also got them more right than any other pianist). Few would contest that his piano trioA piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, almost always a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of musici with Jacques ThibaudJacques Thibaud ( September 27, 1880 September 1, 1953) was a French violinist. Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin first with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservato and Pablo CasalsPau Casals i Defill ( December 29, 1876 October 22, 1973), commonly known as Pablo Casals was a virtuoso Catalan cello player (and later conductor). He made many recordings throughout his career, of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, also as conductor, was the greatest of all time.

Cortot was among the very greatest musicians of the century and represented the end of an era. He is considered the last exponent of a personal, subjective style that deprecated precise technique in favor of intuition, interpretation and authentic spirit. This approach was replaced by the modern "scientific" way of playing, which places logic and precision at the forefront and equates authenticity with metronomic and literal "interpretations". Cortot's recordings are highly valuable documents.