Compositrices à l'aube du XXe siècle

Description

Longtime collaborators on stage and in recordings, Juliette Hurel and Hélène Couvert celebrate here five French composers at the dawn of the 20th century: Clémence de Grandval, countess and composer, is the author of around sixty melodies of which Saint-Saëns said: "They would certainly be famous if their author did not have the irreparable fault, in the eyes of many, of being a woman." Augusta Holmès was admired by Liszt, Wagner, and Saint-Saëns. On the occasion of the 1889 Exposition Universelle, she composed a monumental work for over a thousand musicians. During her studies at the Conservatory, Mélanie Bonis fell hopelessly in love with a singer but married a wealthy industrialist. Later, she resumed composing and used the pseudonym Mel Bonis, thus leaving doubt about her gender. Cécile Chaminade revealed extraordinary gifts at a very young age. Bizet even called her "My little Mozart." Lili Boulanger received her first music lessons from her sister Nadia, a famous pedagogue. In 1913, at the age of 19, she became the first woman to receive the Prix de Rome. The word "compositrice" was born!