Raphaëlle Moreau and Célia Oneto Bensaid take a tour of Europe through four female composers who were celebrated during their lifetime but have since fallen into guilty oblivion. Four different languages, three sonatas at the turn of the 1920s, two miniatures from the immediate post-war period: a rich sound photograph that finally gives voice to the genius of four singular destinies, the Frenchwoman Marguerite Canal, the Croatian Dora Pejačević, the Dutchwoman Henriëtte Bosmans and the Polish Grażyna Bacewicz.
How to read Ronsard today? Simply aloud or in singing it, like back then. Because, for Ronsard, nothing is more obvious than to unite music and poetry: “I also want you to encourage you to pronounce your verses loudly in your room, when you do them, or sooner sing them, whatever voice can have. » Ronsard, Abbrégé de l’Art poétique françois, 1565 As soon as the collection of Loves was published, it was fashionable for a composer to set these poems to music. To quote the most famous: Goudimel, Certon, and of course Janequin. But long after death of the poet, many composers have continued to do so: Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Poulenc… It is because Ronsard’s texts have no no age; Pick the roses of life today is a principle immortal. Julien Joubert reads poetry every day, aloud and even the most often while singing. It was therefore only natural that he lean on the work by Ronsard.
The heroine dies. Not of a deadly disease, not of a broken heart, not in ecstasy nor by her own hand. There is no final aria, no perpetual drawing-out of the last breath, no resounding lament, no congregation of mourners. Only briefly does the music echo bygone happiness.’* This might sum up Janácek’s enchanting opera, recorded live in the usual top quality at Frankfurt Opera in April/May 2016.