The Palazzetto Bru Zane publishes the world premiere of the opera Fausto (1831) by Louise Bertin, in which Karina Gauvin plays the role of Marguerite. This eminent publication leads us to take stock of the most recent revelations of works by female composers.
Just as there was once a “baroque revolution”, revealing entire sections of a new repertoire, the “Diversity and inclusion” movement is in the process of substantially broadening the musical field towards, in particular, Afro-American composers. -Americans.
The duty looked very early on this movement, and in particular on one of its headliners, the American Florence Price, widely highlighted since Yannick Nézet-Séguin began playing his symphonies.
In our overview “The Revenge of the Romantic Composers”, in March 2021, we looked at the works of Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Emilie Mayer, Ethel Smith and Louise Farrenc, also mentioning the name by Hélène de Montgeroult, which the pianist Edna Stern had previously recalled to our fond memories. Three years later, we see that this core has remained solid, enriched by various publications.
Our text “Des composers pampered by the record”, in January 2023, presented new publications dedicated to Louise Farrenc, to Emilie Mayer (with the Symphony no 7 which Rafael Payare will conduct in a few weeks), to Fanny Mendelssohn and Florence Price, and highlighted two new names: Isabelle Leonarda, Italian baroque composer, and Charlotte Sohy, a Frenchwoman from the Belle Époque.
From May 2023, this portrait was greatly expanded by the box set Composers8 CDs published by the Palazzetto Bru Zane: 21 names, including several unknown, which earned this publication a presentation in these pages.
The opera point blank
It is also to the Palazzetto Bru Zane that we owe the resurrection of Fausto by the composer Louise Bertin (1805-1877). Daughter of a newspaper editor, disabled by poliomyelitis, Louise Bertin composed this opera of obvious interest in her twenties, finally premiered in 1831.
Interest because it is, in France, the first setting to music of Faust by Goethe, before the Scenes and the Damnation of Faust by Berlioz and the opera of Gounod. Fausto is a opera series in Italian, that is to say a serious opera, with recitatives and arias. We must remember that in the 19th centurye century, not only were female composers generally muzzled, but, in the cases where they composed, they were rather confined to melody or piano music. So the opera…
Of the lyrical works, Louise Bertin composed four between 1826 and 1836, up to one Esmeralda, according to Hugo, whose failure shattered his ambitions and caused all his works to fall into oblivion. What a mistake ! How can we not quote Alexandre Dratwicki, artistic director of the Palazzetto, when he writes: “It is high time to lend an attentive ear to this music that is much less saccharine or conservative than misogynistic minds might think. »
If Fausto is in Italian, it was created at the Théâtre-Italien in Paris. The discographic release restores the range of the role of Fausto, written for a contralto (here the mezzo Karine Deshayes, opposite Karina Gauvin as Marguerite and Ante Jerkunica as Méphisto). From the start, we think about Don Giovanni. In fact, we have the impression of starting from Mozart and sailing towards the first romanticism. Even if it would be interesting to compare Bertin’s works with Bellini’s parallel journey in time, there is an undeniably French way and color in the treatment of the winds, which conductor Christophe Rousset highlights well. We really fell in love with this discovery.
Nordic voices
Another unexpected gem, the Orchestral suite no 2 by the Finnish Helvi Leiviskä (1902-1982), which we find on the new BIS disc by the excellent Dalia Stasevska (guest on several occasions by the OSM). This suite is taken from the music for the film Juha (1937) by Nyrki Tapiovaara.
Leiviskä had this beautiful phrase when asked how she felt about being a woman who composes: “I don’t know, because I don’t know what it’s like to be a man who composes!” » Over time, Leiviskä developed what the author of the note calls an “abstract polyphony”, “increasingly contrapuntal and tonally free”. This style takes on arid trappings in the Sinfonia brevis (1962, rev. 1972) which opens the CD, but it is remarkable and fascinating in its Symphony no 2 (1954), a sort of post-7e Symphony by Sibelius mixed with Scriabin. Recommended publication.
This very recent discovery made us find, in the publications of the BIS catalog, a record which had escaped us two or three years ago. So let’s make amends for not having revealed to you sooner the name of Helena Munktell (1852-1919), a Swedish composer, daughter of an industrialist, who fell in love with Paris during a trip at the age of 25.
Munktell made his home in the French capital, studying with Benjamin Godard and Vincent d’Indy, and becoming a member of the Société nationale de musique (SNM). Two poles attract attention in this CD: a Sonata for violin and piano from 1905, then created by the famous George Enesco, superb “French” music at the end of the 19th centurye (post-Franckist), and 10 melodies, among which we find real gems, like From a cradle Or Cantilena. Excellent interpretations by Tobias Ringborg and Peter Friis Johansson for the sonata and Sofie Asplund in the melodies.
Polish confluence
The disc American and English Orchestral Music, at Claves, from the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joshua Weilerstein (brother-in-law of Rafael Payare), includes two works by the British Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), of whom we spoke in our first text on female composers romantic. Within an honest 2 CD album, the Suite for strings op. 1a and the Serenade in D major stand out and take just under an hour.
It is a very pleasant “I Musici” type repertoire, the first only for strings, the second with woodwinds. Following Or Serenade can be instilled in a Brahmsian romantic program, very exactly like the serenades of Robert Fuchs. The album is completed by Charles Ives, William Grant Still, Caroline Shaw and Edward Elgar, with a cumulative timing lower than that of Smyth’s two scores.
Fifth and final choice, an important composer about whom we have spoken very little: the Polish Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), a name known for decades but still associated with chamber music works. Krystian Zimerman recorded his 2e Piano Sonata and his piano quintets a little over ten years ago. And now publishers are interested in his orchestral music. CPO begins a complete orchestral music with Łukasz Borowicz and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Chandos does the same with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo. And the first volume is the same: the Symphonies nbone 3 And 4 from the years 1952 and 1953.
We are amazed to see that these symphonies have not managed to find their place in the repertoire. This very personal modernity, a sort of Polish Honegger, gives us dramatic, grandiose, tense, exciting works. Slight interpretive advantage for Oramo, with the recording a little more lively and clear.
Last word for those who want to follow the composers we have already talked about: CPO moves from symphonies to quartets for Emilie Mayer, but the recording of the Constanze Quartet is terrible. We have a little more luck (note: “a little”) with Maria Stratigou, who records the piano work of Louise Farrenc at Pro Piano.
Florence Price is much better off with her 2e String Quartetexcellently played by the Ragazze Quartet, coupled with the “Quatuor American” by Dvořák, in a CD entitled But Not My Soul at Channel, and with pianist Michelle Cann in the album Revival published by the Curtis Institute. Michelle Cann will be in concert at Bourgie Hall on April 16 in a program of African-American composers: Margaret Bonds, Irene Britton Smith, Nora Holt, Betty Jackson King, Florence Price and Hazel Scott.