Women composers honored at the Berlioz Festival

A source of romantic inspiration par excellence, travel is the common thread of the Berlioz Festival which takes place in La Côte-Saint-André (Isère) until August 31, and whose ambition is to celebrate the composer in his native village. , to discover his rarest works, those of his contemporaries and his posterity. With the aim of embracing some of the “a thousand strange and grandiose musical horizons” of which the valiant Hector dreamed before becoming one of the most adventurous creators of the XIX^e century. This exhilarating aspiration did not seem to be motivated, however, on Friday August 19, by the chamber music program given in the middle of the afternoon in the church. As Bruno Messina, director of the festival, recalled, Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) left no work of this type (duets or trios), and the women on the bill did not turn his head, humanly or artistically. The “musical horizon” is therefore to be discovered by oneself.

That of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) did not take long to reveal himself in an ambitious Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (op. 44) whose model is embodied by Mozart. Economy of means, balance at all levels, art of renewal: a profession acquired by listening to the classical masters. The performers make no mistake about it and restore the score with assurance (cellist Virginie Constant), elegance (clarinettist Patrick Messina) and spirit (pianist Fabrizio Chiovetta). The cards of this board game which is similar to chamber music will be reshuffled at the end of the concert in another Trio by Louise Farrenc (opus 45, in which the flute replaces the clarinet), devilishly romantic, but much less accomplished than the previous one.

Youth Pages

The Three romances by Clara Schumann (1819-1896) seem too conventional to serve the feminine cause more or less suggested by such a program. In fact, if the name of Louise Farrenc was the first cited in history to illustrate the neologism of “composer”, the production of the artist did not have to suffer from male preeminence. It was different for Fanny Hensel (1805-1847), sister of Felix Mendelssohn, whose works, in particular the lieder, prove today that she had genius. Although presented in the form of transcriptions (a trend that is becoming fashionable) where the flute (quivering Silvia Careddu) replaces the voice, these youthful pages testify to a profound originality (the irresistible Schwanenliedop. 1).

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