Laetitia Grimaldi (soprano), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)

Mélanie Bonis: Invocation, Op. Posth. 5
Mélanie Bonis: Élève-toi mon âme, Op. 22
Mélanie Bonis: 3 Mélodies, Op. Posth. 91. No. 3, Guidé par de beaux yeux candides
Mélanie Bonis: Un soir, Op. Posth. 77
Mélanie Bonis: Ave Maria, Op. Posth. 176
Chaminade: Villanelle for Voice & Piano
Chaminade: L'Anneau d'Argent, W284
Chaminade: Mélodies, Recueil 1. No. 12, Nice-la-belle
Armande de Polignac: Chant d'amour
Armande de Polignac: Jardin du roi
Armande de Polignac: Ne me regarde pas
Juliette Folville: Songe
Viardot-Garcia: 12 Mélodies sur des Poésies Russes. No. 3, Les ombres de minuit, VWV 1039 & No. 7, Les deux roses, VWV 1055
Viardot-Garcia: 6 Mélodies et une Havanaise variée à 2 voix. No. 4, Haï luli, VWV 1106
Viardot-Garcia: 12 Poems by Pushkin, Fet & Turgenev. No. 12, Les étoiles, VWV 1059
d'Harcourt: La partenza. No. 1, Le rêve de la vallée
Hélène-Frédérique de Faye-Jozin: Printemps
Gabrielle Ferrari: Chanson d'exil
Augusta Mary Anne Holmès: 20 Mélodies. No. 5, C'est un oiseau du bois sauvage & No. 14, Les lavandières
Augusta Mary Anne Holmès: À Trianon

Devised by Laetitia Grimaldi and Ammiel Bushakevitz, Ombres brings together songs by nine women composers whose lives span the years 1821–1964. Many of the songs were written during the so-called Belle Époque, at a time when women might be accepted as performers – especially in domestic settings – but struggled to be recognised as composers. And even in the cases when their music was heard –for instance in the fashionable salons of Paris – or published, it soon fell into oblivion. Several of the songs included here were discovered by Grimaldi and Bushakevitz in libraries and archives, having gone out of print long ago. With Ombres, the performers liberate the nine composers from their shadowy existence, and demonstrate the wide range of their music, from Cécile Chaminade’s bustling Villanelle to Pauline Viardot’s nocturnal Les étoiles or the ghostly Les lavandières by Augusta Holmès, about the Midnight Washerwomen from Celtic mythology.

"Belle époque -aikana toden totta osattiin säveltää lauluja, ja naiset saattoivat siinä olla kulttuurisyistä jopa etevämpiä: Laulujen markkina oli kulttuurikodeissa, joiden musiikki oli naisten hallussa.

Joka tapauksessa Laetitia Grimaldin valoisa, sensuelli sopraano sopii ohjelmistoon loistavasti, ja tulkinnoissa on syvyyttä, joka tekee mahdottomaksi sivuuttaa nämä laulut pelkkänä hyvinvoivan porvariston kotiviihteenä." - Kare Eskola, Yle Radio 1 Uudet levyt 20.1.2022.