Saint Martin

The protagonist of Saint-Saëns’ Proserpine, premiered at the Opéra-Comique on 14 March 1887, is no reincarnation of the ancient goddess, but a Renaissance courtesan well versed in culpable amours. According to the composer, she is ‘a damned soul for whom true love is a forbidden fruit; as soon as she approaches it, she experiences torture’. Yet for all the innocence of her rival Angiola, the unexpected happens: ‘It is the bloodthirsty beast that is admirable; the sweet creature is no more than pretty and likeable.’ Visibly enraptured by this delight in horror, Saint-Saëns indulges in unprecedented orchestral modernity, piling on the dissonances beneath his characters’ cries of rage or despair. He concluded thus: ‘Proserpine is, of all my stage works, the most advanced in the Wagnerian system.’ The least-known, too, and one which it was high time to reveal to the public, in its second version, revised in 1899.

All the pieces included here are by French composers who lived during the impressionist period. D’Indy’s Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français is a sort of hybrid work, a mixture of a symphony and a piano concerto. This work enables the highly regarded Martin Helmchen to demonstrate his musical and technical skills once again.

À Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, à deux époques marquantes de notre histoire, une femme courageuse et sa fille se battent pour leur survie et leur liberté. …