Chaminade and Jolivet, 2023

This Week in Classical Music: August 7, 2023.  Chaminade and Jolivet.  Two French composers have been born this week, Cécile Chaminade, on August 8^th of 1857, and André Jolivet, on the identical day however in 1905.  We suspect that within the final three years the music of Chaminade has been performed greater than all through the earlier 100: we dwell within the period of Wokeness when a composer’s gender (or race) is taken into account extra essential than his or her expertise, and as there’s a restricted variety of feminine composers, even the salon music of Chaminade turns into in style amongst presenters and performers, if not essentially the listening public.  This isn’t to say that previously, girls composers weren’t discriminated towards: Chaminade, for instance, was accused by her modern music critics of being each too female in her songs and lyrical piano items, and too masculine within the bigger, extra energetic items, such because the Konzertstück, (you possibly can hearken to it right here).  We don’t discover something excessively “masculine” within the piece, we’re not even positive what that time period means when utilized to music – it will’ve by no means been utilized by our contemporaries whereas discussing the music of Jennifer Higdon, Shulamit Ran, Libby Larsen, or Augusta Learn Thomas.  We simply don’t discover the Koncertstück very attention-grabbing – it has numerous trills within the model of the worst of Liszt and never a lot actual musical materials.  (On this recording James Johnson performs the piano, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is carried out by Paul Freeman).  Chaminade’s music grew to become in style not solely in her native France but in addition in England and the US within the Nineties, and that continued for an additional 20 years after which the curiosity in her music virtually disappeared – her salon items clearly grew to become out of date.  Chaminade lived until 1944, the final years in relative obscurity.  She composed round 400 quick piano items and songs, a few of which aren’t with out their attraction.  Right here Anne Sofie von Otter sings her quick track L’anneau d’argent.  Bengt Forsberg is on the piano.

Within the final three years, there was no resurgence of curiosity within the music of André Jolivet, even when of the 2, he’s the extra attention-grabbing, extra creative composer.  We now have a number of of his items in our library and have written about him greater than as soon as (for instance, right here).  A prolific composer, Jolivet wrote a number of concertos.  One in every of them was for the Ondes Martenot, an analog synthesizer invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot; the sound of the Ondes (waves in French) is considerably much like that of a Theremin, one other digital instrument invented by the Russian researcher Leon Theremin across the similar time).  Jolivet additionally composed three symphonies, chamber and keyboard music, operas, and lots of songs.  Right here, from 1954, is Jolivet’s unusually scored Basson Concerto with the string orchestra, piano and harp (André Jolivet conducts the Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra; Maurice Allard is the bassoonist).

And talking of French music and musicians: the great violinist Ginette Neveu was born on August 11^th of 1919.  You possibly can examine her right here.